Devore Peak Winter Ascent

Devore Peak (8,360ft)

Feb 19-22, 2022

Nick and Eric

The Bulger peaks in the Stehekin area are some of the most difficult for me to climb in the winter. Access is generally by ferry, but the ferry schedule is reduced in the winter and isn’t very conducive to my weekend warrior schedule. I have two holiday weekends in the winter, and these are really the only times it can be feasible for me to go for the peaks in this area.

Fortunately this presidents day weekend the stars seemed to align for a trip in to Stehekin. A big weather system was hitting the west side of the cascades but the area around Tupshin and Devore seemed rain shadowed and more sheltered from the wind. The weather saturday didn’t look great but Sunday and Monday looked ok. Luckily for us, this year Stehekin Ferry started operating as a competitor to Lady of the Lake. Lady of the Lake only runs a few days of the week, but Stehekin Ferry runs every day now, going from Stehekin to Fields Point in the morning and then back in the afternoon.

Thursday night we were satisfied enough with the weather forecast to pull the trigger and buy ferry tickets. Our plan was to approach the peaks Saturday when the weather was bad, then climb Devore Sunday, Tupshin Monday, then take the Tuesday morning ferry back and shift my Tuesday work schedule a bit later to accomodate. One logistics question to decide was how we would get from the ferry landing to the trail up Devore Creek.

I’d hiked peaks up Devore Creek twice in the past, in the summer of 2018 to climb Devore and Tupshin on my first circuit of the Bulgers, and in 2021 when I went in to climb WyNorth. Each time I’d packrafted from the ferry landing to Weaver Point. Unfortunately Nick doesn’t have a packraft [yet]. We really would each need a packraft to make the crossing work, so that option didn’t seem feasible. There do exist companies that rent packrafts, but not in the one-day lead time we had to work with.

The other, much longer option is to go 4 miles up the road to the Harlequin bridge across the stehekin river then hike/ski back down 4 miles of trail to weaver point. In the summer there’s a bus timed with the ferry that can drop hikers off at Harlequin Bridge, but it doesn’t run in the winter. But the ferry allowed bikes on board, so we decided we’d strap the skis to our bikes, then bike up to the Harlequin bridge, ditch the bikes, and ski back down to the Devore Creek trail.

For gear we planned to come prepared for full mixed climbing with two tools, pitons, and a bunch of rock pro. In the summer Tupshin is a ~5 pitch rock climb and Devore has a few 4th class pitches, but all that would likely be more difficult covered in snow and ice and climbing in ski boots and crampons.

Saturday morning we drove to Fields Point and started packing up. We strapped the skis to our bikes using voile straps and biked down to the ferry. There was one other family on the boat and they happened to be descendents of the climbers who made the first ascent of Devore (Darr, July 1940). We talked to the captain and he said unfortunately the water level was too low for him to just drop us off at weaver point. The dock didn’t even reach the water, and it’s common for the water level to be much lower in the winter. But he said the road was plowed nine miles up from the landing to the Stehekin Ranch, so we’d have no problem biking to the bridge.

We got off the ferry at 2:45pm in a cold light rain and soon took off up the road. The road was indeed plowed to pavement, though there was deep snow on the sides. We made quick time to the bridge, then crossed and made it to the end of the plowed road near the air strip. We pushed our bikes a bit farther toward the air strip then locked them to a tree. We then strapped on our skis and headed down the stehekin river trail.

We were able to follow snowshoe tracks at the beginning, but they soon disappeared. It was a bit difficult to follow the trail but as long as we stayed in the valley near the river it was hard to get too far off.  After a bit over an hour we made it to weaver point and looked over to the ferry landing which was agonizingly close. We vowed if we returned we would find a way to paddle across the lake instead of the roundabout route we took. It was about sunset by then and we discussed just camping there, but I was concerned there was too much uncertainty in the route ahead and many possible delays. If we wanted to maximize chances of reaching a summit Sunday we’d need to get all the way to Bird Creek that night.

The switchbacks up Devore Creek were partially melted out so we had to do a bit of booting, but at the top we were able to put the skis on. Progress was smooth after the switchbacks, and the snow was soft enough to easily traverse the steep slope. We could usually see the trail, but occasionally got too high or low and had to double check on our GPS. We encountered about a dozen avy slides on the steep SE face, and they were full of large chunks of ice and snow. Fortunately they were soft enough that we could usually just skin across. But we were not looking forward to the return trip. Monday night was supposed to get very cold and that meant all the slushy snow would turn to ice.

We pushed on as the rain turned to heavy snow. There were lots of slide alder bushes leaning into the trail, and that slowed progress, but by 10pm we reached Bird Creek and stopped for the night. We found running water, which meant we could save a lot of time melting snow. We quickly pitched the tent and crawled inside. Then we checked the avy forecast and started strategizing about the next day.

I had written a python script to scrape the NWAC website and send the avy forecast to my inreach at a prescribed hour. My code breaks it up into 6 or 7 separate messages to get a lot of detail. I fired up the inreach and the forecast came in as planned. Unfortunately it wasn’t as favorable as we had expected. We had originally planned to climb Devore Sunday, but our route crossed some steep slopes which we decided we’d want to give an extra day to stabilize.

Our planned route up Tupshin, though, wove up low-angle slopes to the base of the climb. Then I assumed the SE face would be steep enough to not hold snow and not be an avalanche risk. The weather was supposed to be better Monday, and we were hoping to save that for the harder peak, Tupshin, but given the snow conditions we decided to switch the order and go for Tupshin Sunday instead.

Sunday morning we headed up before dawn, but it was still snowing hard. The snow was forecast to stop much sooner, and we were concerned it would just be bad weather all day. So we modified plans again and decided to instead move camp to the upper Bird Creek basin at 5400ft, then scout the route to Tupshin and drop our climbing gear at the base. Then we’d just go for Tupshin Monday in the good weather.

We skinned up mostly open pleasant forest to the upper basin and dropped off our gear. Of course it stopped snowing by then, but it looked likely to still be unsettled weather all day. We pitched the tent and continued up the valley. Instead of directly following my route from the summer we instead went farther up the valley to around 6000ft before cutting back up the south facing slope. This route kept the slope angle less than 35 degrees, which we thought was wise given all the recent snow. We took turns breaking trail through 10 inches of fresh powder and soon crested the ridge at 7000ft.

From the ridge we traversed over to the farthest trees directly below Tupshin, and then stopped to inspect the route. There was much more snow on the SE face than I’d expected. The lower ramps were covered in snow, most of the face up to the crux corner were snow, and above the crux looked like a huge snowfield. I guess the face was lower-angle than I’d remembered, and that’s consistent with it being mostly 4th and low 5th class.

As we were looking several large loose-dry sluffs slide off the face, strafing the entire lower route. I was happy to have decided not to climb it today. But even waiting a day didn’t sound like a good idea. The snow was so unconsolidated it seemed like it would be difficult to climb. And the rock was sparse enough that there didn’t look like many gear options. We hadn’t brought pickets, though they would have been of questionable use in that snow.

After some discussion we concluded we’d need to wait for safer conditions to attempt Tupshin, so we would instead focus our efforts on Devore. We turned around and skinned back to the ridge crest. Then we switched to ski mode and had an amazing ski back down 1600ft to camp. There was still daylight left so I skinned back up the creek to lay a good skin track to the base of the route up Devore, then skied back to camp.

We made it to bed shortly after sunset, hoping to put some sleep in the bank for an early start on Devore.

Monday morning we were up and moving by 3am. We hoped to get above treeline around sunrise and then give ourselves the rest of the day for the climb. I’d climbed Devore solo in July 2018 no problem, but we expected it to be much more difficult in the winter. I hadn’t been able to find any reports of winter ascents of Devore, so we’d need to be prepared for unexpected conditions. In the summer the crux is a ~20ft steep 4th class rock step that I’d soloed and rapped down on the return. I didn’t recall any cracks in it, though, so it may be tricky in the winter to mixed climb.

We followed my skin tracks in the dark, then started up a northwest facing gully that I’d used in the summer. The gully got progressively steeper, but fortunately the fresh snow was well-bonded to the 2/19 crust and was stable with no wind loading.

We took turns breaking trail, then near the top we transitioned to booting when it got steeper. We reached a small bench above the gully, then zig zagged up a steep broad face to finally reach the 7000ft shoulder by 6am. We were so far exactly on schedule. The sun was just starting to light up the sky and we could soon turn headlamps off.

We crossed the shoulder then zig zagged up a steep north face to gain the east ridge of Devore. The ridge was corniced but we found a way up that could stay safely out from underneath any cornices. There was a very interesting triple cornice over a boulder just to the side of our route, but we didn’t pass beneath it.

The ridge was low enough angle that we continued skinning up all the way to the bottles. We crossed to the right, then traversed beneath the face and reached a notch just north of the bottles. Amazingly, this notch was uncorniced, though the rest of the ridge north was corniced.

We decided to ditch skis at the notch since the route was steeper beyond. From there we put on crampons and kicked steps up the southeast face. The face appeared sun affected, with firm snow that made for fast progress most of the way. I had been concerend about wind loading on this face, but the only windslab we encountered was a small patch up on the SW ridge of Devore at 8000ft. Once we crossed over this ridge we reached the south ridge of Devore and could at last see the summit.

It was about like I had remembered, just covered in snow and ice. Luckily, as we expected, the west side of the ridge was scoured down to rock from all the west winds Saturday and we made quick progress across. The east side of the ridge had huge cornices, though, which we made sure to stay well clear of.

By 9am we reached the base of the crux step and

started gearing up. I’d brought a 60m half rope that we doubled up for the climb, and would allows us to do 30m rappels. Nick is a strong mixed climber so he volunteered to lead. The step is very deceptive, because we could see the rap anchor not too far above and the pitch is not too long, but it is surprisingly tricky. There are no cracks, only ledges and slabs.

We took our time and somehow Nick made it up 20ft with no gear before eventually finding a crack to stick a cam in. Then the angle eased and he reached the rap anchor. I followed up and couldn’t find anything solid to hook with my tools. So I harnessed my tools and delicately balanced with my hands pushing against the face. Some moves were very committing and I was happy to have a top rope. I used a few alpine knee moves and eventually made it up to the anchor. It was much harder than in the summer, and we’d rate it M3 R (since almost no protection).

From the rap anchor we simul climbed left on a ledge around a very exposed corner, and eventually wove around to the base of the true summit. I was happy to have done this route already in the summer to know how to get around the false summit.

I belayed Nick over to the base of the final gully, and then he took over. There was a tricky step to get through low in the gully, then a harder one higher in the gully. So we cut right onto the face to the right, which had better holds. Finally we could actually hook holds with the tools and do proper mixed climbing. We then traversed left back into the gully above the higher step and got to a good horn anchor near the top.

We took turns going up to tag the true summit, which was slightly corniced. The clear skies of the morning had been replaced by whiteout, so unfortunately we didn’t get any good views. I thought about looking for the register, but the summit had so much snow it would have been futile. It was 11:30am by then, and the climb had taken longer than anticipated, but we expected skiing down would be fast.

We took some pictures, then started planning our descent. I recalled there was a rap anchor somewhere on the edge of the summit, but it would likely be hard to find. So we just built a webbing anchor around the horn and rapped directly back down the gully. From there we decided to solo back around the exposed ledge to save time, and then we rapped down the crux step to our stashed gear.

The clouds lifted a bit then and we got some good views down to Company Creek to the west. We followed our tracks back to the SE face, then downclimbed the face back to our skis.

The ski out was amazing. I rarely ski powder since I’m alwasy seeking out low avy conditions for peakbagging (ie icy, dense trees, ridges), but this was 10″ of stable powder that was quite a treat. We shredded turns around the bottes and down the ridge, then down the steep north face back to the 7,000ft shoulder. We followed our tracks back down the northwest face and gully, and made it back to camp by 2:15pm. There was plenty of time left to get much lower, and we hoped to get as low as possible given the very cold weather expected that night.

We soon packed up and continued down. We made fun turns back to the trail at Devore Creek, then followed our traks down the trail. As we got lower the powder got thinner and thinner until we were mostly skiing down firm crust. Now the avy slides were much more difficult to cross, and we generally just took off our skis to boot across. Eventually it got icy enough that we just switched to crampons and walked the rest of the way back to the switchbacks.

We managed to get a few more turns in above the switchbacks, then booted down and finally put the skis on again near weaver point. It was just about sunset by then, meaning we were exactly on schedule. We considered camping there that night, but to reduce uncertainty in the morning we decided to push on all the way to our bikes. That way we could just do a quick bike ride to the ferry in the morning.

It took a bit over an hour skinning back up the stehekin river trail, but we reached our bikes by 8pm and quickly set up the tent and went to bed.

The next morning was chilly, and I heard it got to 6F in Holden nearby. We packed up and made the quick bike ride back to the ferry landing, arriving an hour early. Stehekin is usually bustling with people in the summer, but we were the only ones around that morning. We hung out admiring the views, and picked out Sahale and Boston peaks up the valley. Soon the ferry captain came and we loaded up our gear. It turned out we were the only passengers on the ferry that morning, and it felt kind of like our own private chartered boat.

The ride back was scenic, and we were soon back to Fields Point and driving home.

Movie of the trip:

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