Tricouni Peak

Tricouni Peak (8,105ft)

April 17, 2021, 1am – 8 pm

Eric and Andrew

21 miles, 8,300ft gain

The weather was looking hot and sunny for the weekend so we looked for a peak that had a north-facing route. Tricouni Peak is one of the top 200 peaks in Washington I hadn’t yet climbed and was in an interesting location on the edge of the Eldorado ice cap in North Cascades National Park. One route climbs to Lucky Pass from the north then follows class 3 rock ledges up the west ridge to the summit. This sounded like a safe route, especially if we timed it to climb up to Lucky Pass in the morning while the north face was in the shade.

I checked on caltopo and that face was expected to be in the shade until early afternoon, which should be enough time for us to get up and down before it heated up. One issue was that our planned approach from Colonial Creek Campground required crossing Thunder Creek near McCallister Camp. But the bridge over the creek washed out in 2017 and as of last summer hadn’t been repaired. I read reports from John P and Stephen S on peakbagger that there was a log jam a bit upstream of the old bridge that was a feasible crossing.

However, a lot could have changed between last summer and this spring, and it wasn’t certain there would still be a log jam there. But I had a secret tool to get across any river – a packraft. I planned to bring the packraft and just paddle across at the old bridge location. That way we wouldn’t waste time bushwhacking looking for a log jam that might not even be there. I hadn’t really used the packraft for this purpose for more than one person, though. I planned to just tow a small rope behind me, then when I got across Andrew would

pull the packraft back across with the rope and then paddle over to meet me. This was probably more likely to work than having both of us go across on the boat at the same time.

Friday night we drove to Colonial Creek Campground and I was surprised to see a dozen other cars there. The campground is still closed for winter, but it looked like most of them were planning to car camp in the day lot for the weekend. I kind of suspected at least one group may be going up into the mountains where we were going, since our approach was part of the Inspiration Traverse, a ski traverse that gets done occasionally in the spring.

We got a few hours of sleep, then were up and moving by 1am. Interestingly, one tent in the campground had a light on, and I thought maybe it was some skiers. But it was more likely a group that had just arrived late. I had been on this trail in mid march with patchy snow starting at the trailhead, but this time the trail was snow free. We made good time on the flat trail for the first few miles, then got slowed down by a few blowdowns around mile 4-5.

By 3:45am we reached the turnoff for McCallister camp and soon discovered that the bridge was indeed still out. There was a pile of new lumber on the edge of the creek and a small rope going across between trees on each end. But the rope was too small to support body weight. I think it may have been put there by trail crew working on the bridge. The creek was too deep to wade across and we stopped to discuss what to do.

One option was to bushwhack up until we found a good log jam to cross. But that could waste a lot of time if there was no log jam. Even if there was one, it would take time to bushwhack up to it and bushwhack back to the trail. It would probably take about the same amount of time to just inflate my packraft and paddle across. And that would justify hauling it all the way in there.

There was actually a very good launching site on our side and an easy sandy takeout on the other. So I quickly took out the boat, inflated it, and paddled across towing some paracord. At the other side I got out and Andrew pulled the boat back, then paddled over. In all it took about 15 minutes, so not too bad. I brought the boat up into the trees and tied it up to use on the return.

We followed the trail a bit towards McCallister camp, then turned off on a rough climbers trail I’ve seen referred to as the Lucky Pass Boot Path. It’s kind of funny it has a name since it’s not much of a trail, at least in mid april. There were quite a few blowdowns on the ridge and we probably spent about half the time bushwhacking around blowdowns and half following the path. Around 3,500ft snow started and we switched to mountaineering boots.

By then it was dark enough to take headlamps off. We worked our way through a cliffband at 3,900ft, then regained the ridge proper as the snow depth increased. By 4,800ft the angle eased enough that we switched to snowshoes. There we got great views of Snowfield Peak and Ruby Peak across the valley, and we could soon see Cosho and Mt Logan. We followed the ridge up to the edge of treeline at Borealis Lake at 6,000ft.

There we got a good view of our route. Borealis Lake was still frozen over, and the route up to Lucky Pass was in the shade as hoped. In all the trip reports I’d read for this approach the direct route to Lucky Pass was melted down to ice and groups took a more roundabout way traversing below Primus. But we were pretty early season, so the direct route looked much more appealing.

We weren’t certain how well the lake was frozen over, so we snowshoed around the east side, then roped up at the base of the borealis glacier. I led the way kicking steps up the slope to Lucky Pass. The snow was actually dry powder, and I was surprised it hadn’t gone through melt-freeze cycles over the past week. But that’s probably because it was on a direct north face with cliffs on the west and east, so saw hardly any sun all day.

We soon got to more level terrain, which we followed up to the pass. There we unroped, since it was the end of the glacier. I poked my head around to the east ridge, but it actually looked easier to go directly up the west-facing snow finger from the col. The snow there was icy and firm in the shade, having gone through melt-freeze cycles over the past week. We quickly frontpointed up the slope, and I appreciated having a whippet and ice axe for dual dagger placements.

The slope soon eased and we scrambled up rocky terrain with patchy snow all the way to the summit. The summit blocks were melted out, though unfortunately I couldn’t find a register. Views were great of many glaciated peaks all around. We could see across the icecap to Eldorado and south to Forbidden and Buckner. The weather was comfortable, with hardly any wind.

We wanted to make sure we descended before the route got in the sun, so soon retreated. We downclimbed the icy snowfinger, which was still in the shade, back to our stashed gear. We then roped back up and plunge stepped back down from Lucky Pass to Borealis Lake. We saw a few small loose wet slides on south and east facing slopes directly in the sun, and we had intentionally chosen a route to avoid aspects like these.

We were both short on water, but luckily I noticed a snowmelt trickle on a rock outcrop nearby. Andrew had the foresight to bring a McDonalds straw, and we used this to direct a trickle of water into our nalgenes. We soon snowshoed back down the ridge, then plunge stepped down to the edge of treeline and bushwhacked back to Thunder Creek. On the way down I noticed a few logs across the creek perhaps 0.25-0.5 miles upstream of the old bridge, so it probably would have been possible to cross without the packraft.

Back at the packraft I paddled across towing the paracord, then Andrew pulled the boat back and paddled over. I packed back up and we soon headed back down the trail. We ran into a father and sun camping out at the stock camp and one other guy planning to hike up to McCallister camp. He was unaware that the bridge was out so I’m not sure if he made it all the way there.

I had contemplated floating back down the last few miles of Thunder Creek from the last bridge crossing, but in the end decided it would probably take longer than walking since I’d scouted a big logjam a mile down on a satellite image that would need portaging. Plus we only had one boat so couldn’t both float down. So Andrew and I both ended up hiking out.

We reached the car by 8pm, in a now-full day lot, and were soon driving home.

 

 

 

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