Phenomenal trip, as I got to the summits of Star Peak, Courtney Peak, and Buttermilk Ridge. Views were absolutely amazing. So many peaks were seen, especially from Star Peak. Also the larches were awesome!!
I started at 7 am from the West Buttermilk trailhead, after sleeping in the back of my car. Most of the blowdowns have been cleared up to a huge wash out / avalanche field that took out a wide swath of trail. Here it was a pain to get thru and around. After this, there were a dozen or so blowdowns, but nothing major.
As you come up on Fish Creek Pass, you go through a beautiful larch forest. As you get to the pass you look down at Star Lake, and another beautiful larch forest. Passing by Star Lake and walking through this larch forest was amazing. After this there is a steep trail that takes you up to the west ridge of Star Peak. Once you wrap around this, it is a steep ascent up some dirt and talus to get up to the summit. The summit of Star has some spectacular views. So many peaks to see, along with many larch forests.
After dropping back down to Star Lake, I went back up to Fish Creek Pass, and took the ridge up to Courtney Peak. This was a pretty straightforward ascent up to the summit. Awesome views from here too!
From the summit of Courtney, I took the ridge down to the saddle, and went up Buttermilk Ridge. This was not straightforward. Lots of huge boulders to negotiate, along with loose ones. Lots of scrambling on some very large boulders to get up to this summit. On the way down from Buttermilk Ridge, had to down scramble more large boulders, before going cross country down a drainage, that went through another beautiful larch forest. Down below this larch forest, I ran into some huckleberry bushes that caused me to have to do some bushwhacking to get back to the trail, but it really wasn’t that bad. Still, I was very happy to be back on the main trail.
Finished at 6:45 pm. I ended hiking out the last 4 miles with another hiker, Cliff, who had went up Courtney. It was nice to chat about numerous other hikes in the area. On the way in, I talked to another hiker who had camped the night before at Star Lake, and had got some awesome photos of the northern lights!
Awesome trip. 18.2 miles with 7057 ft elevation gain.
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