Mt Ballard Survey

Mt Ballard Survey

July 18, 2023

9:30am – 6:30pm, 3 miles biking, 7 miles hiking

Summary of results: Mt Ballard elevation 8,371.0ft+/-0.1ft

Still a WA top 100 peak

I had one final ground survey to conduct before being satisfied with my updated list of the true WA 100 highest peaks. Mt Ballard had never been surveyed and there was uncertainty in its exact height. It is close enough to the cutoff for inclusion in the list that I thought a ground survey was required to be certain.

On the Azurite Peak O48120f7 1:24,000 quad there is a surveyed benchmark point “Azurite” at 8,301ft, and this is labeled “Mount Ballard” on the map. It is enclosed in the 8,280ft contour, but there is another peak 1100ft south also enclosed in the 8,280ft contour. Hikers have noted that the southern peak is obviously higher than the surveyed point, and is thus the true summit of Mount Ballard. So the “Mount Ballard” label on the quad is in the wrong location.

As far as I’d researched this southern peak had never been surveyed. I’ve read that hikers have estimated it to be about 40ft taller than the surveyed point, and thus Mt Ballard has been assigned an elevation of 8,340ft. The northern surveyed point has a much broader summit and was probably easier for surveyers to mount equipment on and take measurements from. Because of the error on the quad, Mt Ballard was originally assumed to only be 8,301ft and was not included in the Bulgers list because it was too short. But after the error was noticed and the elevation approximated to be 8,340ft, Mt Ballard was added to the WA top 100 list. The Bulger list is kept unchanging for historic reasons so Ballard never got added to the Bulgers list.

Unfortunately I couldn’t find any details about how the estimate of the southern peak height was made or what the error bounds were. If the estimate was made just by eye, the error bounds are probably large. If a theodolite or sight level was used, that would increase accuracy, but it appears the estimate was likely just by eye. Unfortunately there is no Lidar coverage of this area. SRTM satellite measurements exist but have relatively high errors. As I’ve been updating an accurate list of the WA top 100 peaks I’ve found the cutoff for list inclusion is 8,325ft. If the Ballard estimate was off, it is possible Ballard would not be tall enough for list inclusion. I concluded a ground survey was the only way to know for sure.

My first option was to bring my theodolite up to the benchmark point and take a relative measurement to the true summit. This would work, but the result would only be as accurate as the benchmark elevation. The advantage of the theodolite would be I could sight other unsurveyed peaks nearby and find their relative heights also (for instance, Azurite Peak has never been surveyed and is nearby). My second option was to bring my survey-grade differential GPS unit to the summit and take a one-hour measurement. The unit is a Spectra Promark 220 with Ashtech antenna. This would give me an elevation with 1-inch accuracy. This unit was much lighter.

I was going solo so opted for the lighter option. Maybe in the future I can bring the GPS unit to the top of Azurite and get a good elevation measurement for it, though it is solidly on the WA top 100 list and a ground survey would not change that status.

The standard route on Mt Ballard is to climb the east face starting at Slate Creek. I’d previously climbed this route in October 2018 with Steven, Trace, and Jake. I recalled the first 1.5 miles were on an old road and were very bikeable. So I decided to bring my mountain bike this time.

I left Seattle at 4:30am Tuesday morning and drove up and over Harts Pass, descending on the back side down to Slate Creek. The road beyond Harts Pass is steep and loose, and I appreciated being in a 4wd truck with high clearance. By 9:30am I reached the gate at the creek crossing and parked there. The road across the creek is maintained and continues down to Canyon Creek, but is private and the gate locked. I’ve hiked that road in the past and it is open to the public for non-motorized use. It ends at some old mining buildings. The road up to Cady Pass is also gated, but only lightly maintained for ATV use. I think the people who own mining claims around Mill Creek have the keys to the gate and maintain the old road. It is open to the public for non-motorized use.

I carried my bike around the gate and started biking up. I saw some fresh ATV tracks and the road was in great shape for mountain biking. There were a few washouts that had been dug out just wide enough for an ATV, and I cruised by on my bike.

I soon reached the bridge over South Fork Slate Creek and locked my bike up to the tree on the west side. I scrambled up a dirt slop into the trees and then followed my track from my previous ascent. The trees were very open and the bushwhacking fast and easy. I made a gradual ascent to the 4800ft basin NE of Ballard. I crossed a talus field then ascended in an old avy path with thin trees and slide alder. It was dense, and I vowed on the return to instead take the old growth forest back down.

I ascended to an open talus and grass slope at 5800ft then diagonaled up to a small weakness in the cliff band at 6200ft. There I picked up a climbers trail and followed this to the east ridge of Ballard. I followed the ridge up past treeline and soon hit loose rock. I scrambled through a few 4th class sections before the terrain leveled out to scree. I followed the scree to the saddle between the summit and the benchmark, then wrapped around the west side of the summit.

I followed ledges around the west side, then scrambled up a gully and made the final blocky 3rd class scramble to the summit by 1:15pm. The weather was great, and I unpacked my equipment. The highest point was a loose block 3ftx3ft, and the highest bedrock was only 1inch lower. I set up the tripod on the bedrock point and started logging data. I couldn’t balance it exactly on the highest point so put it next to that and used my tape measure and sight level to measure the height of the antenna above the highest point of bedrock.

If possible I always like to get backup measurements to increase confidence in my results. So I took out my 1x and 5x sight levels and took angle measurements looking down to the benchmark peak to the north. I also set out my Garmin 62S handheld unit on the summit. These measurements would have higher error bounds, but if they gave heights similar to what I measured from the Spectra unit that would increase my confidence in the final result.

After waiting around for an hour I saved the measurements and scrambled back down. To get the most accurate sight level measurements I would need to get angular inclination measurements from the benchmark looking back up to the summit. It was hard to tell from the top but there are actually two more peaks north of the true summit. There is a rocky middle peak and a more broad scree-covered northern peak.

At first I scrambled up the middle peak and took sight level measurements and set up the Spectra unit. While it was taking measurements I scrambled over to the north peak and found the metal USGS benchark there. It has “Azurite 1962” carved on it. I returned to the middle peak, packed up the unit, and mounted it directly on the benchmark to start collecting data. I guess this wasn’t really necessary, but I figured it would be nice to see how my Spectra measurement compared to the surveyed height of 8,301ft. While data was being logged I took more sight level measurements up to the true summit.

I was satisfied with just a 30 minute measurement here, since that could still get accuracy to within a few inches. By 4pm I was packed up and heading down. I’d spent nearly 3 hours up on the summits, which is way longer than I usually spend but it was important to get all the measurements. And I got plenty of time to admire the views all around.

I returned to the saddle then scree surfed down to the east ridge. For the descent I took a slightly better way with more

solid rock and fun 4th class downclimbing. I retracd my route bushwhacking through the trees and got back to my bike by 6:15pm. The bike ride out was fast and fun, taking just 10 minutes. It was totally worth bringing the bike vs walking.

For the drive out I had to axe out one small tree that had fallen over the road. Then I really appreciated the 4wd and high clearance driving back up to Harts pass up the steep loose rocks. I eventually got home by midnight.

I processed the results with OPUS and got a final elevation 8,371.0ft +/-0.1ft. My sight level measurements were consistent and gave a height of 71ft above the benchmark, which gives a final height 8372ft but with higher errors with leveling the bubble. Because the elevation is above 8,325ft this means Mt Ballard is still a WA top 100 peak.

If you want to support gas money for future surveys you can click the button below. (I’m just doing these surveys for fun, not part of any job and not paid.)

 

 

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