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Kololo Peaks

(USGS Glacier Peak East, GT Glacier Peak)

July 30-31, 2005

Party: Mike Torok, Matt Burton

Introduction:

Kololo Peak is a rock crest surrounded by glaciers on the south side of Glacier Peak, one of the Second 100 highest peaks. The trip had three stages: first hiking the North Fork Sauk trail to beautiful meadows by White Pass, second crossing the glacial wasteland of rock piles and scattered ponds gouged out by the Whitechuck Glacier before it retreated, and third crossing successive glaciers (Whitechuck, Suiattle, and Honeycomb) to reach the peaks on the summit ridge.

Last year we had attempted Kololo as a three-day trip, but rain prevented us from getting beyond White Pass. This weekend we only had two days, so we can up with a deceptively simple plan: we would just walk faster. Actually it was more like a foolishly exhausting plan. We didn’t actually move faster, we just kept moving longer, putting two days worth of hiking (17½ hours) into the second day.

The most interesting part of the trip ended up glacier-scoured terrain between the meadows and the glacier. It looked like it would just be barren wasteland, but it was actually a fascinating jumble of rock piles, sand, and water. There were little ponds hidden all over among the rocks. The water ranged from bright blue tarns fed by snowmelt, to deep green tarns fed by powdery glacial water, to deeper muddy green tarns that accumulated silt without any outlet. At the retreating toe of the Whitechuck Glacier, we walked across streams of water that ran over, under, and around the glacier and then spread out to fill ponds in the barren basin from which the glacier had retreated.

Details:

Saturday

North Fork Sauk Trail (Trailhead to White Pass)

The North Fork Sauk trail seems to have only two grades: flat by the river or steep up the ridge. The first six miles gained less than a thousand feet following the river through old-growth forest from the 2100-foot trailhead to the Mackinaw Shelter (3000 feet). Then it climbed 3000 feet in the next 2.7 miles, in switchbacks hacked out of the brush of avalanche slopes. The soil was broiling and the black flies hounded us. My skin felt like an unhappy stew of heat, coated with sunscreen and insect repellent, with sweat running down me, and flies bouncing off me.

The reward came in the meadows above 5000 feet. We gained a breeze to cool us off and keep the flies away. Anywhere a small stream trickled down, the meadows were filled with flowers. We stopped to pump water at a little stream that had only a trickle of flow, but all around it were big bunches of flowers. You’d have pay a fortune to create this kind of water garden in town, but here it spread naturally for hundreds of feet above and below the trail. Higher up, there were wide swaths of purple and white flowers stretching up to the ridge crest. Behind us, Sloan and the Monte Cristos came into view, and ahead we could see Indianhead Peak rising above the bright green meadows of White Pass (6000 feet).

Lighting Creek High Route (White Pass to Camp)

At White Pass, we turned onto the Lighting Creek high route, which was a very well beaten trail traversing northeast past the flank of White Mountain. At about 6250 feet, we turned uphill to hike up to the ridge crest just before (west) of a distinct rock outcrop. We back side was steep, so we went a little further east on the crest and then dropped down loose rock and steep meadow a couple hundred feet into the glacial basin.

From the ridge crest, we could look down see miles of dirt and rock piled up across a low-angled basin left behind by the retreating glacier. We headed northeast to cross the low point of the basin and then northeast toward the glacier, which was hidden behind successive piles of rocks and moraines. Below us was a pretty lake with White Mountain behind us. Across the valley, I could see the White Chuck Cinder Cone, where I had camped on the first three-day trip I ever made in the Cascades, as a hiker on the White Chuck trail back in 1987,

The basin was filled with rock piles, separated by stretches of sand or pumice, and watered by occasional streams and snow-patches. We followed the basin up to a crest at 6600 feet, not far from the southwest corner of the glacier, separating the previous older basin from a newer basin even more barren from the glacier’s recent retreat. We put our camp there on a very comfortable flat patch of sand, with two small tarns nearby, and a view of Glacier Peak on the rise above us. I went swimming in the nearest tarn, which made a great swimming pool. It was a couple hundred feet long but only about four feet deep, with a soft sandy bottom and refreshing warm-cool water.

Sunday

Up the White Chuck Glacier

We left camp at 5:45 in the morning and walked uphill to reach the toe of the glacier at about 6800, discovering multiple additional small lakes along the way. The lower glacier was bare ice and frozen solid during the night, so we cramponed easily up the slope. The bare ice showed lots of small crevasses, but nothing that was a serious obstacle. Below us, we could see at least more and more ponds reflecting the morning light like silvery cut-outs in the shadowed basin. As we ascended, we crossed into sunlight and white snow higher on the glacier, and the ponds turned bright blue reflecting the early sky. From here we could see that there were at least a dozen ponds, with several larger lakes that had been hidden at lower elevations.

First Route-Finding Error

We headed up the glacier a little too easily and never stopped to check that out route should have traversed north to get to the permanent snow/ice filed above a ridge at the northeast corer of the glacier. Instead we ended at a 7600-foot foot col, looking down several hundred feet at the stagnant lower lobe of the White River Glacier. The bottom lobe of the glacier was melting back into the hollow, covered in black dirt and surrounded by meltwater ponds.

Actually, we could have made a loop trip at this point, by following the ridge north to the 7200-foot col, then dropping east onto the middle of the White River Glacier, then ascending back up northeast to the east summit of Kololo. Instead we retraced our steps downhill a few hundred feet and across to the north edge of the glacier, where we climbed to the higher snow near a stream gully and then followed snow and rock to a col at 7800 feet on the minor ridge between White Chuck and Suiattle glaciers. (This was our first route-finding error of the day, which cost us about 45 minutes.)

Across the Suiattle Glacier

From here, we had wide-open views of the south face of Glacier Peak, and the wide expanse of glaciers and glacier-cut rock that stretches between Glacier & Kololo. The sun had warmed the snow cover up here, so we continued without crampons. On the Suiattle Glacier, we traversed summit ridge circa 8000 feet, where the ridge of Kololo had multiple outcrops with deeply carved wind galleries between them. The summit turned out to be the first point after the ridge crest, but we overshot it, so we decided to go on to the east summit first and then get the main summit on our return.

Honeycomb Glacier, East Summit (8160), and West Summit (8197)

An east-trending nose led us to the Honeycomb Glacier, where we could see an easy line curving southeast and then southwest to the summit. This glacier showed some larger crevasses, so we roped up for the crossing. The east summit (8160) was a wide pumice covered ridge with a few rock outcrops and superb views of the surrounding area. Tenpeak, Luahna, and Clark showed up clearly. Mike had also wanted to do a couple bonus summits (because they had 400-foot prominence) further east, but we didn’t have time to go there. Further northeast, a new fire on Dirtyface Peak sent plumes of smoke towering into the air. The wide pumice field on the ridge was soft enough that I lay for a while on my back just enjoying the view of the sky above the peaks at the periphery of my vision. Then we retraced out path back to the main summit, which had just a bit of a steep snow finger to get to the top. We found a film-can register left by Don Goodman in 83. After more pictures and views, we headed back to camp.

Descending the Glacier (Ice-Melt Streams and Glacial Ponds)

With full daylight, the lakes in the glacial basin made a fascinating display of colors. The clearest lake, near where we had camped, was a deep blue. Other snow-fed lakes up on the moraine were blue-green, having picked up some glacial powder. Below the foot of the glacier, a series of lakes and streams (the head of the White Chuck River) were a bright grayish-green with the loads of silt washing down from the glacier. Further down, a large lake confined in a basin with no surface outlet was a deep yellow-green from the build-up of silt.

In the warm sunshine, the toe of the glacier was alive with water. At edge of the glacier, we crossed alternating stripes of black and white, black being the dark surface of the glacial ice, and white being the fresh snow filling the lines of crevasses. In the flat center, the surface was covered with little streams of clear water running down the glacier. Occasionally the water would splash and gurgle into small crevasses, where we could see it making little waterfalls inside the crevasse and could hear it running in streams far below. Farther down, we could hear the louder rush of multiple streams running out of the glacier onto the plain of ground dirt and little lakes below the glacier. Where we exited the glacier (a couple hundred feet higher at its southwest corner) there was a series of three beautiful little lakes among the rocky moraines. (These would be an ideal camp area.)

Exit (and Second Route-Finding Error)

We packed up our camp and headed out at about 3pm. Then we made our second route-finding mistake. We headed to the nearest col that would take us over the ridge separating our basin from Foam Creek, crossing the second col to the east of Point 6770. A report from a previous traveler had led Mike to believe that the Lightning High Route passed through Foam Basin, so we dropped into the basin, which was a very steep descent that cost us an elevation drop down to 5900 feet. We didn’t find the trail, and we spent a long time getting around the shoulder of 6770. Finally we found the trail back up at about 6350 feet a little west of the shoulder. My guess is that the trail doesn’t drop down, but rather traverses high on the shoulder to reach one of the cols nearby. Anyway, this detour cost us another hour.

Back on the high route trail, we made good time to White Pass and down to the river. However, we had lost too much time and energy, and we couldn’t get close to getting out before dark. I ended up hiking the last two hours by headlamp. Deep under the trees on a moonless night, it was surprisingly dark. When I’d turn my light off for a break, I couldn’t see even a trace of the trail route, just a few stars glinting between the treetops above. Very weary, I finally trudged into the parking lot at 11:15pm. During the tired day at work on Monday, I kept myself going by remembering the high peaks, the green meadows, and the rough beauty of the glacier-plowed basins.

Statistics:

TH to White Pass, 7 hours, 8.5 miles miles, 4300 gain

White Pass to Camp, 3 hours, 2.4 miles, 930 gain.

Summits: 8.5 hours, 6.6 miles, 2740 gain (includes 300 loss from route error)

Camp to TH: 8.25 hours, 11.5 miles, 1040 gain (includes 500 loss to Foam Basin)

Total: 29 miles, 9010 gain.

Related Trips:

White Pass (Kololo Attempt), 8/27 - 8/28/04