My new friend Stacia and I got on the "trail" right around 9am. We did the burgundy col route. Which means scrambling down boulders and negotiating blow downs from the pull out at mile marker 166 on highway 20. Once you're down to the creek find a log to cross, we found a nice big barkless wet one so we scooted across. I assume a lot of people find this one. After that have fun in a forest of deadfall and trend just slightly right, we stayed on a little ridge until we met the trail shortly. Which kindly takes you straight uphill. The whole line is straight to the col, don't be tempted to trend left on easier terrain around the col, just get it in it. Snow starts on the more mellow section before the col. 

Once in the coulior right now you can choose snow (won't last long and is not skiable) or rock/dirt. We chose rock/dirt for the way up. It's loose. I'll get back to this for the way down. After what seemed like a long time but wasn't that long we topped out to the col and saw our first goat of the season. We were pretty excited and took a break with him before putting on our crampons and getting out our axes.

Exiting burgundy col is the steepest section of the climb, but it's short. We downclimbed, Stacia quickly, me more slowly. It's stepped out nicely right now. Then you traverse right, climbing up to a little saddle. I don't like traversing, even if it's pretty mellow. From the saddle you hit silverstar glacier and head right again between the east and west summits. The only opening we saw is on climbers left going up about halfway up on the final steeper slope. It's close to the cliff band and you shouldn't come close to it if you stay on route.

We used crampons and axes, but brought a 30m rope, helmets and harnesses. After topping out of the glacier we climbed the East peak (on the left). A fun class 3 scramble. A noticeable ramp starts you off but trend right from there... left gets you into harder terrain and not to the summit. 

Gorgeous views were enjoyed for our hour summit lounge. Then we headed back down. The first steeper slope spooked me a bit. It was soft on top but hard underneath, not able to get a great plunge and seemed slippery and made me feel unstable, so I threw crampons on and cautiously, awkwardly, zigzgaged a bit until it mellowed out. Stacia plunged it, no crampons. Then we traversed back over, my fav, and made it up the steep shoot to the top of Burgundy Col. Crampons off, axes away. 

Down the coulior. Which is worse than the Cascadian on Stuart, I stand by that, (albeit, shorter). Totally loose, no good footing, miserable. Once we could jump on snow consistently we did and plunge stepped the best we could, which was more like getting your heel in a few inches or finding old bootpack to put your foot in. Which I usually hate doing on the way down. Once out of the coulior stay right and try to find the trail down. We found it quickly. I did have a tracker on my phone which helped a lot. I also had resumed my previous track which threw all the numbers off, great, but it got us down, and back to the same log! I was pretty proud of that. So, as for gain, the mountaineers say 5200,' I'd say it's closer to 6000' including what you lose and gain back. Mileage I'd put between 6-7. We were back at the car at 8pm, leisurely pace, plenty of breaks. Although we did pass a party on our route that started 2 hours before us and the other party on the summit came from silverstar creek started at 5am. Skiing would be ok from that approach I think but can't speak to it personally. 

 

I was part of a Seattle Mountaineers group that had originally intended to do the Ruth/Icy Traverse, but with the forecast looking wet, we opted instead for Silver Star, which we hoped would be drier. We got an early start from Seattle on Saturday morning and arrived at the trailhead a little after 9:00AM. There's a wide and obvious pullout to park where you can view the Wine Spires, the Burgundy Col and other surrounding peaks. The first section of the trail is a steep scramble down to the Early Winters Creek with lots of loose rock. Watch your step here. 10 minutes into the climb and I took a spill. There are cairns along the way to guide you to the trail register. From there, next up was the creek crossing, which was tricky. The water was fairly high, so we needed a log to cross. The best one we found was a foot or two above the water without the benefit of bark. It was slick, but our party of 8 made it across without issue. After crossing the creek there is a bit of route finding to locate the trail again. Our leader found it quickly, and we were on our way up to camp. There are some sections of the trail that required a bit of bushwhacking, but soon the trail becomes obvious. But it was STEEP! After a couple of hours and lots of elevation gained, we made it to the bench beneath the Burgundy Col where we decided to camp. It was early in the day and we considered continuing on to camp at the top of the Col, but opted for the lower camp so we wouldn’t have to haul our heavy packs up and back down. Being early in the day we had plenty of time to build a deluxe snow kitchen and tent platforms. There was on and off rain and snow throughout the afternoon and evening. The next morning we woke up a little before 5:00 AM and departed camp at 5:30. The skies were clear when we left camp. We took turns kicking steps in the steep snow up the Burgundy Col. There is still a good amount of snow here, but it’s definitely melting. Be mindful of tree wells and other areas that look melted out. After reaching the top of the Col we descended a couple hundred feet to begin our traverse. Going down the opposite side of the Col was quite steep so most of us went face into the mountain and self-belayed ourselves down until the terrain flattened out. We traversed over to a ridge and roped up for the short Silver Star Glacier crossing. There were no crevasses in sight as we crossed, so on the way back down we did not use the rope which made for a much faster return. We made it to the base of the summit from camp in about 3 hours. Reaching the true summit required some maneuvering. To go the last 100 feet or so, it took us almost 2 hours. It had started to snow and the rock was slippery with the fresh precipitation. There was a second climbing party ahead of us that chose to attempt the summit via the chimney that is often used later in the season. We opted for a lower class scramble to the right that had some uncomfortable moves, especially given the state of the rock and the weather. Our leaders set protection along the way for extra safety. All 8 of us summited. There were no views to speak of, but we all enjoyed the climb nonetheless. I’d love to go back when the weather is clear to see what we missed. We descended the summit by rappelling to a safe area. We then set up a hand line to descend a bit further since the snow was icy and not ideal for plunge stepping. When we were back to the base of the summit, we agreed to forego the rope on the way back since it would be faster, and there did not appear to be any crevasse danger. Most of us plunge stepped down and a few enjoyed a nice long glissade. We were back at the campsite in an hour and a half – quick timing considering how long it took us to reach the summit. We took an hour to pack up and a little more than an hour to hike back down to the cars. We had almost forgotten about the final steep uphill ascent to the cars. It was punishing after a long day, but we rewarded ourselves with a stop for barbecue and beers in Marblemount on the way home. A great early season climb with an even better group. Thanks to our excellent leaders who led a fun and safe outing.

A few of us were camping on Labor Day at Pearrygin lake State Park with our families and I couldn't miss this unique opportunity to climb Silver Star Mountain - a 30 minute drive from our camp vs. almost 4 hours from Seattle. As it usually happens when I steal a day from a camping trip to climb a mountain I woke up late, had to feed the kids and didn't start the climb until 10:15 AM. The approach trail starts at a wide, unmarked pullout off highway 20, right after passing the turnout to Cutthroat Creek trailhead, coming from Winthrop. While nothing is marked on this hike, it's easy to find where the trail starts down the eroded slope towards the bottom of the valley - there are boot marks and later cairns leading the way. Once you reach the forest, you find a register box and the trail becomes more obvious. At the Early Winters creek there were plenty of places to cross safely and the water was low, being the end of August and all snow already melted. Once you find a place to cross the creek just walk back to where the trail would continue uninterrupted and you'll find it. From this point on this pretty established trail climbs relentlessly on tiny switchbacks through the sparse forest and grand views open up immediately toward Liberty Bell, the highway with its hairpin turn at Washington pass and the Hinkhouse ridge. By noon I made it to the Bench - a flat spot on the way to the Burgundy col - and ran into a couple of climbers who were camping there; they said they had climbed to the col but the other side didn't look good so they decided to turn back. That description wasn't going to deter me from trying for the summit, so I pressed on. The trail becomes increasingly eroded and then splits into a maze of paths that all go more or less in the same direction, so as Fred Beckey would say - "follow the obvious path to the Burgundy col". I made it to the col by 1pm, had a quick food break, put my gear on and started down the other side, descending to the ice and snow fields that lead to the Silver Star glacier, under the Wine Spires. The back side of the col was indeed a bit ugly, with mud and loose rock, but nothing too dangerous, if anything a bit dirty. I downclimbed a couple of hundred feet and then took to the snowfields and rocky ridges until I reached the glacier. It was fragmented and crevassed as expected in late season, but I was able to navigate a way along the western edge and then across the upper glacier to the col between the two summits. On the way I met a couple who were coming down from the west summit (the lower of the two) wearing trail shoes, without crampons, ice axe, helmet or any other gear. It looked a bit suicidal to me to try to climb a glacier in late season without traction gear, when the snow is thin and many barren ice spots exist. We had a quick conversation: "we thought we might invest in some climbing gear if we do more of this stuff"... if you make it back alive, that is.They made it out of there successfully, I saw their registry entry when I returned. Once at the top of the glacier I dropped my crampons and axe and climbed the summit block - most of it was easy class 3 except for a couple of class 4 moves, one next to the bottom, the other shortly before the top, which were very exposed and required some careful hand and foot placement, but thankfully the rock was solid and the hand- and footholds were good. I reached the summit before 3pm, or what I thought was as good as the summit - the actual summit was a vertical rock block standing right in front of me, two feet taller than where I was and looked very exposed. I considered trying to climb it; I could probably find a class 4 move to get me up there but I was exhausted and I started worrying about the weather - around me black clouds were gathering ominously from all directions. I decided not to push it and started descending. Downclimbing the top class 4 move was even harder that I felt it on the way up, but I managed to avoid the lower one by finding another route which was slightly easier. The dark clouds stayed, on and off, but the rain never materialized. Back on the glacier all I could think was: don't slip, don't slip! I was walking diagonally to reach a rocky outcrop in the middle of the ice and there were mixed patches along the way with soft snow and bare ice. Even as I couldn't see it I knew there was a giant crevasse somewhere below me, that stretched from the summit block to the rocky island. So I didn't slip. After navigating the crevasses in reverse on the lower glacier I made it back slowly under the Wine Spires on the way to the col. In an effort not to descent too much so I wouldn't have to climb later I stayed higher up which was a mistake, because the small glacier remnant under the Wine Spires was all steep barren ice which required lots of effort to cross - at least I got to use the pick of my ice axe to anchor myself. Finally back under the col I chose to climb up on the remaining strip of snow rather than through the mud and loose rock on the side. A few more exhausting steps up with my heart racing at more than a hundred beats a minute and I happily crashed on top of the Burgundy col, removed my crampons, got some food and recharged for the hike back. What an adventure! Car-to-car: 8 hours Vertical feet: 4500 Summit: 8876'