Technically Cardinal Peak isn't within the GPW, and I was surprised to find out that both Saska and Emerald are just right at the border of the wilderness. Cardinal sits in the Wenatchee National forest.
There seems to be a lot of confusion over where the true vs false summit is. Just climbed it this weekend and while the other 3 bulger registers in the area are chock full of scores of signatures the Cardinal summit register is almost empty - we were the 10th to sign it in the last 12 years. And its not a hidden or hard to find register, its in plain sight in a big metal tube right on top.
There are 3 main summits (North, Middle and South). Forget the North summit, that is to the left of the approach gully and has a large cairn on it, nobody is climbing that one.
Middle summit is the easy walkup that everyone counts as a successful summit.
South Summit is 500ft to the south and is where the 4th/5th class summit block is with the register.
The Middle summit seems to be the low point at 8556 and Gaia marks that elevation where the middle summit is. But USGS maps mark that same middle summit with 8590. The south summit looking across from the middle summit looks visibly higher too and its an easy 500 horizontal class 2/3 scramble/hike over to it. But other beta says otherwise, but that info is decades old.
At the base of the south summit there are a few variations of 4th class/low 5th going up about 20ft to the top of the summit block. There is a rap sling on top and the summit register is right on top. The rap sling looked to be snapped so anyone going up there next should rebuild it.
Some trip reports and pics out there mention there is only something on the order of 1ft difference or that the North is the high point by a hair. Not sure how that matches up with 8556 vs 8590. My iphone altitude app was reading closer to 8556 on the middle summit and closer to 8590 on the top of the south summit. But whatever, if you want a more fun outing tag them both and find the register on the South point.
Read up on it a bit more in Becky's guide, has more historical info. Not all exactly right, there seems to be a lot of little things off and stated differently in the material printed about this peak from exact dates, elevations, points on the map.
Matt Lemke - Jul 20, 2017 10:57 pm - Hasn't voted
Cardinal Not quite in GPWTechnically Cardinal Peak isn't within the GPW, and I was surprised to find out that both Saska and Emerald are just right at the border of the wilderness. Cardinal sits in the Wenatchee National forest.
Klenke - Jul 21, 2017 12:11 am - Hasn't voted
Re: Cardinal Not quite in GPWHey, thanks. I'll correct that cardinal error.
ilauder - Sep 7, 2021 8:00 am - Hasn't voted
True summit vs false summitThere seems to be a lot of confusion over where the true vs false summit is. Just climbed it this weekend and while the other 3 bulger registers in the area are chock full of scores of signatures the Cardinal summit register is almost empty - we were the 10th to sign it in the last 12 years. And its not a hidden or hard to find register, its in plain sight in a big metal tube right on top.
There are 3 main summits (North, Middle and South). Forget the North summit, that is to the left of the approach gully and has a large cairn on it, nobody is climbing that one.
Middle summit is the easy walkup that everyone counts as a successful summit.
South Summit is 500ft to the south and is where the 4th/5th class summit block is with the register.
The Middle summit seems to be the low point at 8556 and Gaia marks that elevation where the middle summit is. But USGS maps mark that same middle summit with 8590. The south summit looking across from the middle summit looks visibly higher too and its an easy 500 horizontal class 2/3 scramble/hike over to it. But other beta says otherwise, but that info is decades old.
At the base of the south summit there are a few variations of 4th class/low 5th going up about 20ft to the top of the summit block. There is a rap sling on top and the summit register is right on top. The rap sling looked to be snapped so anyone going up there next should rebuild it.
Some trip reports and pics out there mention there is only something on the order of 1ft difference or that the North is the high point by a hair. Not sure how that matches up with 8556 vs 8590. My iphone altitude app was reading closer to 8556 on the middle summit and closer to 8590 on the top of the south summit. But whatever, if you want a more fun outing tag them both and find the register on the South point.
Read up on it a bit more in Becky's guide, has more historical info. Not all exactly right, there seems to be a lot of little things off and stated differently in the material printed about this peak from exact dates, elevations, points on the map.