North Pickets Traverse Trip Report

“Because of the rugged ter­rain, the Pick­et Range has remained the wildest and most unex­plored region in the North Cas­cades. It is not an area for the wilder­ness novice. The length of climbs, com­bined with steep mixed ter­rain and vari­able con­di­tions, demand all around com­pe­tence and fit­ness.” - Fred Beckey - Cas­cade Alpine Guide, Vol. 3

I've been dreaming of a trip into the Pickets for over 15 years.  In 2006, I came across Tom's photos on Flickr,  and I was entranced by the allure of the Pickets and dreamed of eventually getting to see some their high cols and rugged peaks. I made several casual forays, once in 2007 while camping at Ross Lake with the family I bushwhacked up McMillan Creek and a hike up the Stetattle Ridge and peering in at Elephant Butte.  I quickly realized that just the approaches to the Pickets were super committing, both in terms of the length of the hike in and the renowned bushwhacking.   I put the Pickets on pause and did a bunch of other less committing traverses - High Alpine Lakes Traverse, The Foss Lakes Traverse (several times),  Kyle's Big Snow to Iron Cap traverse and last year the Ptarmigan Traverse.  And while we were on the Ptarmigan - we got to Kaytlyn Gerbin and Jenny Abeg on their epic North Cascades High Traverse. 

I spent a few hours chatting with Kaytlyn about beta for the North Cascades traverse from Whatcom Pass to Luna Col, and plotting lines but nothing lined up for dates with my usual adventure crew, and so I put it on the back burner.  That trip was planned for 4 days, but when I had to attempt the same trip in 2 with Alden I chatted with Stac and got the time off of work and rushed off make the ferry pickup time on Ross Lake at 4pm.

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Terrain Dictates Pace 

A flat fast hiking pace with a pack is 20 minutes per mile, and things slow depending on the elevation to either 30 - 45 minutes per mile when you climb on a trail.  When you cross 

18 miles of trail up to Whatcom Pass - with a 1/2 a mile of bushwhacking in the dark to get to and from Little Beaver trail to Stillwell Camp.

2 miles of scrambling up to the top of Whatcom Peak : 2 hours

1 mile of descent across Perfect Pass to the edge of the Challenger Glacier : 2 hour

2 miles of crossing the Challenger Glacier : mile 24 :  3 hours

2.5 miles of traversing the Luna Cirque : 2.5 hours

2.5 miles climbing up to the top of Luna Col : 4 hours

1.5 miles of traversing down from Luna Col and dropping down the very steep horribly chossy gully to Access Creek - I don't ever want to go down that again with out snow. : mile 31 : 2 hours

3 miles down Access Creek - which is not bad - you stay east of the creek across the talus until you see the cairns and cross the creek, and then there is a very decent trail that you can follow until you approach Big Beaver Creek - where I took a right fork and I think I should have stayed high. That ended in bushwhacking - and then crossing the creek on a log and then heinous combination of Devils Club thrashing with giant skunk cabbage and swamp before I finally found the Big Beaver Trail : mile 34.5 : 3 hours

Hiked down Big Beaver trail in the dark to mile 42 - and lay down at 11:30 pm on the trail in the dirt to sleep.

Woke up at 4 am and got ready and started hiking again - dropped down to Ross Lake Resort at 7:40 am and got a ride back across to the Ross Lake Ferry point and then a mile hike back up to the car.

How did the Body Do

Usual scratches I get on my legs because I choose to wear shorts, poked my knee on a log.  Minor scrape on my elbow and scrape on my butt when I fell.

Pad of my left foot under two pinky toes has a blister and is super tender.  Ball of foot under my big toe is also "hot" and super tender.  By the end of Friday night at 11 pm my feet hurt, and were throbbing when I went to sleep. The next 

Tongue is sore on end from too much sugar fuel.

My legs felt fine - I got tired as you will - but never had huge ache, spasms, cramps etc.

Ankle was pretty normal - each morning stiff, no pain like on my aborted 100 mile attempt, though it hurts like I made a hard effort - no where near the pain after the 100 mile attempt.

I wore Brooks Cascadia 16 shoes

There was a ton of chossy sandy grit and gravel - had to empty my shoes several times - feet got wet in snow - so that all added to the wear and tear on my feet.

How did food go?

I vastly underestimated the amount of food I would need.  This is in large part of underestimating the time it would take, how taxing the miles would be and I am super lucky that I decided to grab an extra zip lock baggy of food with an extra 1000 calories.

As it was - I ended up only having like 4 gels left at 5 pm on Friday night and I put myself on an hour timer and only had a 100 calories an hour.  The last 4 hours on Saturday - I was out of calories except for 2 thimble berries but I felt ok.  My tongue was "blistered" from eating so many sugary gels one after another - I need to work in some more savory stuff and should have taken more "real food" - like some carbs in bagels or something.

photos : https://www.flickr.com/photos/wanderflechten/3291168287/ 
inspiring reads : http://www.alpenglow.org/nwmj/06/061_Pickets.html