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Kris Haskins Staff Webpage |
Devils Thumb |
| March 23rd, 2009 |
After Getting Back from visiting my friends Jon and Brooke in New Orleans last week, I was itching to get back out into some northwest forests. Fortunately for me, Brian was already planning something and shot me an email mid-week to see if I was interested. I said absolutely, and after a few rounds of planning past prior engagements, we settled on Devils Thumb in the Mountain Loop area on Sunday.
I drove over to Brian's house at 5:30 in the morning, where we were met by Jim, Evan, and Sylvain. We split off into 2 cars to make for a more comfortable ride since we had quite a bit of gear and squeezing people into one car would have been a nightmare. Pretty much zero traffic had us to the trailhead before 7:30.
Ready to go
After gearing up a bit, we were off on a well packed trail of snow that didn't even require snowshoes. After a ways however, the snow got a bit deeper and less traveled, and the shoes came out. Following along deer creek road, we made pretty good time to the turn off, then started up it taking turns breaking trail. When it was my turn, the snow varied from soft and easy to a hard crust that needed to be broken through. Looking behind us there were wonderful views of Del Campo, Big Four, and Sperry(Wanna go climbing Jeff?). We followed the road untill the first switchback, then wandered in a more uphill manner to shorten the distance a bit. After some good uphill slogging and views of some icicles, we arrived at Devils Lake Basin.
Slogging up the road
Shoulder of Big four, Sperry, Del Campo
Cool Ice formations
From the Basin, we formulated a plan to go up around a rock outcropping then up the right Couloir to a saddle. After gaining the saddle, we roped up for some fun but short climbing to the summit. Sylvain and Jim were up first, then came the team of Evan, Brian, and I led by Evan. We all tied into Brian's rope with Brian in the middle and simuled the climbing. It started off with a neat little mixed step, follwed by some steep snow and then leveled out to a ridge. At this point it started snowing on us, and I was getting a bit cold. After we started moving a bit I warmed up and so did my fingers as I gave out a few screams(hurray for the screaming barfies, although no puking in my case). Walking the ridge was a little bit spicy as Jim managed to plunge a leg through a cornice that gave a nice view to the valley floor WAY down below. After that, a little down climbing on snow and then up to some super rock had us at the summit
The Basin
Climbing up the Couloir
Jim gives Sylvain a belay
Brian Approaches the Mixed step
The Climbing took a bit longer that we wanted, so we didn't spend much time on the summit before turning around and reversing the process. We decided to change up the rope teams a bit, and Jim and I went out in search of a place to rap off. I suggested a pretty stout looking snag I had spied on the way up and Jim went down to check it out. We both got down to the snag which was very solid, but weren't sure if a single rope would make it. As we planned what to do, the other group showed up and we decided to just do a double rope rap. After all of us were down, it was plunge stepping back to the valley floor, then a long slog out back to the cars
Jim at the Rappel Snag
It's hard to say how amazing it was to be outside again. I know that my last trip wasn't that long ago, but after going to Lousianna I am reminded of just how lucky I am to live in this area. Thanks to Jim, Evan, Brian, and Sylvain for a great day out in the mountains!
