..intimidating from a distance. This view is much more tame than most.
Golden Horn is just a beauty on its own. Sheer walls dropping of to the north are most impressive.
What this Trip Report is NOT....
It is not a tr for some top highest of the world, not an FA of a peak or a route, not some crazy/scary accident tr, or even one of those crazy 5.11-13 walls ;-).
Instead it is about fun, partnership, friendship, family and...oh... did I say fun?
Here is a fun video for those how don't care about the tr...BUT if you read the tr you must click the video for the tunes so it will all flow together...GRIN!! ;-)
What do you do when you want to avoid an 11 miles of boring trail? >GRIN<
Bushwhack Swamp Creek of course! It is a lot more entertaining, challenging and shorter for saving the feet! Plus I love to bushwhack and route find, It is one of my specialties. The Bushwhack is strait forward and 3.5 miles from the trail head/road to the lakes. Head up the east side of the creek following a ridge. Around 5000’ cross Swamp creek. Start the long steep traverse through forest and avalanche gullies till you reach the PCT below Methow Pass below or near Snowy lakes.
In the bottom of the valley swap creek is quite marshy. By crossing at around 5000’ you avoid the wettest of the marshes. Most of the bushwhack is in the forest and you can move fairly quickly. Minus the swaths of alder and such that one may run into.
After setting up camp we headed up to play on Golden Horn. Fun scramble with a short class 4/5 section to the small summit block. The wind was creating a nasty cold ass wind-chill on the summit so we didn’t stay long.
We had quite the time back at camp with crab walk races, whiskey drinking, and "manamana" singing (that was continued into the next as we climbed Tower crazy . Thanks Carla! provoke ).
Pics from the day...
day 2
The next morning it was 24 degrees out. Brrrrrr!!! Tower would warm us up and so did our new song we all sang at random hilarious moments (gotta have those random moments to break up the pucker factor that you can be taken out by a rock at any time!).
Manamana! The climb.The scramble up Tower is a lot of fun, despite the reports of how scary it is!
Do do da do do… Mostly class 3 that is very exposed in most places with a few tiny moves of class 4.
Manamana! There is a lot of loose rock on the route but we moved very efficiently as a group of 5 and had no issues with rock fall minus some small stuff.
Do do da do do… The route is easy to follow if you take your time and route find. This will avoid the class 4 slabs in the gully proper.
Manamana! Stay to the right of the main gully proper and find many ledges to traverse. You will end up zig zagging a few times.
Do do da do do…Good fun! We hung out on top for an hour and headed back to camp.
Manamana! Time to play in the forest for a few hours. Do do da do do….
We had no issues with our schwack on the way out.
"So I was sitting in my cubicle today, and I realized, ever since I started working, every single day of my life has been worse than the day before it. So that means that every single day that you see me, that's on the worst day of my life."
--Peter Gibbons (Office Space)
Washington 2000-ft Prominence Peaks
