Primus Peak Winter Ascent

Primus Peak (8,508ft)

Feb 26-27, 2022, 25 miles

Eric and Luke

Primus is a glaciated peak in North Cascades National Park on the northeast edge of the Eldorado Ice Cap. It’s fairly remote, about 10 miles in from the nearest trailhead. I’d previously climbed Primus twice before, on a ski tour in early May 2017 and again in late September 2018. But I wanted to go back and climb it in winter as part of my winter bulgers project. Luke was also eyeing Primus and conditions looked good for a winter attempt.

I’d previously climbed Primus by starting at the Eldo parking lot on cascade river road. That route is about eight miles in and makes sense in the spring and summer when the road is driveable to the Eldo lot and avalanches aren’t a concern. In the winter that’s not necessarily the best route. It requires traversing a steep snow slope below Austera that is above a cliff and can be dangerous if it slides. Also, this winter I discovered there’s a massive impassable old growth blowdown at MP 15 on cascade river road, which adds about six miles to the approach to the eldo lot.

The alternative approach is to hike up from colonial creek campground and climb the northeast ridge route to Lucky Pass, then climb the east ridge of Primus to the summit. I’d done this approach last April climbing Tricouni, and it works well. It’s a bit longer, but the road is driveable to the trailhead on that side. The main disadvantage is the bridge over Thunder Creek is washed out and the ford is difficult. But in April I’d used my packraft to cross and it wasn’t too bad. I’ve read of people finding a log jam to cross, but that’s not very reliable. Any storm can wipe out a logjam. The packraft is reliable, though, and probably the most certain way to get across.

This weekend an atmospheric river event was supposed to start Saturday late afternoon and continue in to Sunday. So the thunder creek approach made the most sense since it would minimize time above treeline, while the Eldo lot approach would require a very long and risky traverse above treeline.

Based on my timing from Tricouni in April we figured we’d better start very early Saturday to try to tag the summit and get back below treeline before the storm rolled in. In April I had snowshoed Tricouni and regretted not bringing skis for the descent. This time NOHRSC was showing good snow coverage down low, so we decided to ski to increase speed and efficiency. In April I had done Tricouni as a 19-hour car-to-car trip, but snow levels were high then. Now with the lower snow levels that would likely slow us down we decided to do the trip as an overnight to avoid a potential 24+ hour push.

Friday night we met up at the pulloff on Highway 20 near the Colonial Creek campground and got a few hours of sleep in the cars. Shortly after midnight we were packed and skinning up the snowed-over road. Conditions were icy and we had to take the skis off on a few bare sections, but after the bridge the snow was generally continuous.

There was one set of posthole tracks, but they disappeared after a few miles and then we appeared to be the first ones up the trail for a while. We alternated booting on the icy snow and skinning, and eventually kept skinning as the snow softened. There were a dozen or so blowdowns, but none were too bad compared to my trip up that drainage last winter climbing Mt Logan.

By shortly before sunrise we reached the old bridge crossing to McAllister camp and dropped our overnight gear off in the woods. I recalled back in April there was a pile of bridge building supplies at the crossing and a small rope across the creek, like the trail crew was working on a bridge. But this time that was all gone, including the small rope. It’s not too surprising the bridge is low priority. It only accesses an old campsite immediately on the other side, and there is no official trail continuing on, just a climbers trail.

We unpacked the paddling gear and plunge stepped down to the old put-in spot I had used before. This time, though, things were much more difficult. The bank was covered in ice. I inflated the boat and tried to get in, but it kept slipping into the water. I almost fell in at one point, and stopped to reassess. By then the sun was just starting to rise and visibility was improving. I scoped out another potential put-in just downstream, and we walked over there.

That put in was a bit less icy and worked better. Before getting in I needed to figure out what to do with my gear. I’d only brought skis on a packraft once before (on my circumnavigation of Jack Mountain trip), and that time I’d strapped the skis on the side and put my gear in the cargo hold. But this time we were kind of racing against the clock to summit before the storm, so wanted to save time.

I decided to strap my skis horizontally on my pack and wear my pack to cross, which would be much faster. I had brought a 40ft length of paracord for the crossing and tied one end to the back of the packraft. Then Luke flaked the other end and held on. I gingerly got into the boat and pushed off, then paddled hard to cross a rapid and reached a nice sandy takeout on the other side.

I got out, took the paddle apart, stowed it in the boat, then Luke pulled the boat back over. Luke made it across no problem, and I quickly tied up the boat on the shore and put some big rocks inside.

We kicked steps up steep snow on the other side and then continued up the route. The snow was pretty icy and the route steep, so we carried our skis on our backs. The route was pretty straightforward to begin with, since it just follows the sharp NE ridge. But there are a few tricky cliff bands to be careful with. I stumbled across the partially-melted-out climbers trail and was able to navigate through the lower cliff band.

We then continued climbing the ridge, weaving around blowdowns, and then traversed left to get around the upper cliff band. I was very happy to have already done this route before to save time with nagivation. In the winter any amount of time savings can make the difference between reaching the summit or not.

Shortly after the upper cliffband around 4,800ft the terrain mellowed enough that we were able to put skis on and start skinning. The snow turned into powder that got deeper as we got higher. We started getting occasional views of Snowfield Peak to the north and Ragged Ridge to the east. Eventually we popped out at the edge of treeline and saw our objective, Primus Peak.

We skinned across the frozen lake to the Borealis Glacier, then stopped to rope up. I’ve read reports in the summer of the glacier being very icy and broken up, and groups will do a circuitious route to Lucky Pass. But in the winter the direct route up to Lucky Pass has good snow coverage and is the way to go. This is what I had done back in April.

I zig zagged up the slope until it got too steep for skis. Then we transitioned to crampons and kicked steps directly up. At Lucky Pass we unroped and continued up the unglaciated East Ridge. By then it was 2:30pm and the nasty weather was starting to come in. Summits in the distance were getting socked in and the wind picked up, blowing snow off the ridge. We had a bit of time left before the clouds hit Primus, but we would have to move fast and would be cutting it close.

Luke decided to stay with the skis while I continued. It felt kind of like climbing Mt Washington in New Hampshire in the winter. I’ve done that dozens of times in winter and it’s often very windy with low visibility, like it was on Primus then. The conditions were still within my comfort level, so I increased my speed and quickly kicked steps up the firm snow. By 3pm I arrived at the summit, and visibility was still ok. I could see the summit of Austera, but Klawatti and Forbidden were now engulfed in clouds.

I snapped some pictures and basked for 30 seconds in a momentary lull in the wind. Then I hustled back down. I down climbed facing in, following my up tracks which were partially drifted over already. As I descended the wind died down a bit and visibility improved. I soon reached my skis and Luke waiting. We had originally hoped to tag Tricouni, but that was now out of the question with the approaching weather. We strapped skis on and quickly started making turns.

It was very fun skiing down the north face from Lucky Pass, and we soon reached the base of the Borealis Glacier. We then put skins on and skinned across the flat frozen tarn to the crest of a few bumps on the ridge at the edge of treeline. The summit of Primus was finally starting to get socked in and snow was starting to fall from the sky. I think I had cut it pretty close on the summit, with maybe 30 minutes to spare. I was very happy not to have wasted any extra time rigging up the packraft and had saved time by making a quick crossing.

Back in the trees we ripped the skins and had very fun turns skiing down through the powder. We made it down to 4800ft, then switched back to crampons. From that point down the snow was very icy and the trees dense, and it would be much faster just to boot down.

We followed our up tracks, navigating our way through the cliff bands. Darkness eventually set in and it continued snowing. By 7:30pm we reached the packraft, and made our way across without difficulty. On the other side of the creek we found our stashed gear, and I set up the mega mid tent. We then threw our bivy sacks inside and were asleep. It had been a rough 19 hour day.

It snowed and rained all night, and we were up and moving by 6am Sunday. The slushy snow actually helped make the trail less icy and it was a bit easier to ski out. We made good progress, and actually encountered two other backpackers  near the Fourth of July trail. This was kind of surprising for me. That was the first time this winter I’d seen other hikers on a trail on a winter Bulger trip. Last winter I’d only seen other people twice on my winter bulger trips, and they were heli skiers.

By noon we made it back to the cars in the rain and were soon driving home.

Movie of the trip:

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