Trip Date: September 17-18, 2005

Bandit Peak Climbing Trip

Schaefer Lake
D-S Coulee
Dysprosium Peak aka D Lake Peak aka Dyslexia Peak (6764 ft)
D Lake Cirque
Bandit Peak (7625 ft)

Trip Report Summary

Region: North-Central Washington Cascades

Sub-Region: Chiwawa Range

Area: Glacier Peak Wilderness

Starting & Ending Point: Schaefer Lake Trailhead on Chiwawa River Road (Elev. 2400 feet)

Way Points: Chiwawa River & Schaefer Creek & Schaefer Lake & D-S Coulee (trail hike & rock scramble)

Campsite: D-S Coulee

Summit: Dysprosium Peak (rock scramble via Southwest Ridge)

Sidetrip: D Lake Cirque (rock scramble)

Summit: Bandit Peak (rock scramble via North Ridge—East Face; descent via South Face—Southeast Gully)

Approximate Stats: 18 miles traveled; 7200 feet gained & lost.

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>>> Dysprosium Peak via Southwest Ridge – June 5, 2004

Full Trip Report

Come September and October, I don’t need much of an excuse to head up the Chiwawa River valley.  Given the fact that Bandit Peak had worked its way toward the top of my wanna-do list for the north-central Cascades, and given the wishy-washy weather forecast, the Chiwawa Range seemed like an obvious choice.  Fay joined me for a weekend attempt of this seldom-climbed peak on the western side of the valley.  It turned out to be a weekend of surprises.  For one, the weather was surprisingly good—perhaps nearly perfect.  For another, the summit was surprisingly difficult and elusive.  For a third, I was very surprised to have selected one of the seemingly few peaks that Fay has not already climbed!

Day 1: Trailhead to D-S Coulee + Dysprosium Peak

We headed out from the Schaefer Lake TH at about noon on Saturday.  The excellent trail, comfortable temperature, and steady conversation got us easily to Schaefer Lake before mid afternoon (2.5 hours from car).  From there, we hiked a short distance around the lake, then ascended directly northward through moderately dense forest.  We soon stumbled onto a scratch path leading straight up to the ridge crest, at which point a well-defined fisherman’s path traversed westward to the 6000-foot-high and ¼-mile-long coulee between Schaefer Lake and D Lake.  This coulee, with its nearly level expanse of grass, heather, boulders, and streamlets, was yet another pleasant surprise.

Since it was only 4:00pm, I suggested that we drop packs and scramble up the 6764-foot knob to the east to take a gander at D Lake and Bandit Peak.  Fay readily agreed, and an hour later we were standing on the summit of what John Roper has dubbed “Dysprosium Peak.”  A tiny register had been left here by a solo climber several weeks previously.  The views straight down to talus-rimmed D Lake and straight out to double-fanged Bandit Peak justified the effort.  We spent 30 minutes on top before heading back to our packs.

Although our original plan called for camping at D Lake, we both thought that the coulee looked much more inviting—especially after finding a good water source.  We pitched my pyramid tent on a nice grassy patch and cooked dinner in the doorway.

Camping with Fay was quite an education for me in regards to the modern world of “light-packing”;  she is a ruthless slicer and dicer when it comes to her backpack weight.  Indeed, I wouldn’t be exaggerating too much by saying that if any piece of mountaineering gear or clothing is available in aluminum, titanium, drillium, helium, ultralightium, Kevlar, Spectra, gossamer, or antigravitite, Fay owns it!

Day 2: Bandit Peak Summit Climb + Exit

After a calm, cold, and clear night, we awoke to a frosty morning, which delayed our departure for Bandit Peak until nearly 8:00am.  We first descended 200 feet towards D Lake, then contoured around the head of its talus basin to reach grassy slopes on the other side.

Next, we regained the 200 feet and began a long traverse across the sunny eastern slope of Chiwawa Ridge, holding closely to an elevation of about 6400 feet.  Our objective peak had always looked far away from camp, but the super-steep grass and interminable talus made the traverse feel even longer.

We eventually passed under Bandit’s impressive twin rock fangs, which are split by a repulsively steep, long, narrow, southeast-facing gully.  Beyond, we curved up to hit the ridge crest at a 7300-foot saddle just north of the fangs.

Although we didn’t really know it at the time, Bandit Peak actually comprises three distinct peaks:  a southeast peak (the left fang), a northeast peak (the right fang), and a west peak (the true summit).

From our position at the saddle, a spine of rock led over to the northeast peak, and the west peak could be seen behind and to the right.  Both of these peaks looked awfully steep!  We scrambled exposed but solid Class 3 rock along the spine until reaching a steep notch, which required us to backtrack a bit and then traverse at a lower level.

More excellent Class 3+ rock led to the top of the northeast peak, from where we could look directly across at the west peak.  Unfortunately, there did not appear to be any reasonable way of descending to the intervening col except by means of a 200-foot rappel—and I was pretty sure my 75-foot scramble rope wasn’t going to stretch that far!

Just when it seemed that Bandit Peak was going to rob us of a summit, our situation improved greatly.  We had peered over the cliffs in all directions and discovered one place (on the southwest) that was less steep and more featured than the others.  Although it had several vertical steps, which made a downclimb seem questionable, we decided to give it a try.

I found a good anchor block at the top, and Fay made a 30-foot rappel over the first step to check out the terrain.

She reported that it looked possible—mostly Class 3 interspersed with a couple more Class 4 steps.  I rappelled down and pulled the rope, which meant that we were now committed to the downclimb.  Fortunately, the other Class 4 steps turned out to be short, and we were both down to the col within 10 minutes.  From there, 300 feet of fun Class 3 scrambling put us on the true summit right at noon (4.2 hours from camp).

The summit resister consisted of many paper scraps stuffed into a lightning-perforated cookie tin.  Fay pawed through the scraps and determined that only about seven parties had signed in since 1990.  She transferred everything to one of her nice pvc register tubes.  We spent over 45 minutes on top enjoying the sunny, mild weather and clear views up the Napeequa and Chiwawa valleys.

When it came time to head down, we agreed to try descending the long southeast gully  rather than retracing our ascent route up and over the northeast peak.  Sure, I had earlier called this gully “repulsive,” but it would save us a lot of time—if it went.

We started downclimbing the gully, which began as a broad “V” but soon funneled into a narrow slot.  The bottom portion was never visible, so we could never be confident that we wouldn’t get cliffed out.  I kept our rope handy, in case a rappel was needed.  However, we were able to tease out a route past every obstacle without rappelling.  After an hour of slow, white-knuckle scrambling on steep, loose rock and sand, we reached the bottom.  Whew!  All in all, I’d say this gully is about as ugly as they come.

We completed the long traverse back to camp (2.6 hours from summit) and packed up in the warm afternoon sun.  Another 6 miles of pleasant hiking got us down to our vehicle by 6:30pm (2.4 hours from camp).

Photo Gallery

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