Trip Date: May 30, 2009

Davis Peak Day Climb

Gorge Creek
South Davis Saddle
Davis Peak (7051′)

Trip Report Summary

Region: Northwestern Washington Cascades

Sub-Region: Stetattle Mountains

Areas: Ross Lake National Recreation Area & North Cascades National Park

Starting & Ending Point: Gorge Creek Overlook parking lot (Elev. 1100 feet)

Way Points: Gorge Creek & South Davis Saddle (off-trail hike & rock scramble & snow climb)

Summit Attempt: Davis Peak (snow climb to East Ridge step via East Basin)

Summit: Davis Peak (rock scramble & snow climb via South Buttress—South Ridge)

Approximate Stats: 10 miles traveled; 7400 feet gained & lost; 13.5 hours elapsed.

Full Trip Report

Davis Peak might be the most-admired-but-least-known mountain in Washington. Anyone driving over the North Cascades Highway has undoubtedly ogled this rugged mountain towering over the Skagit canyon between Newhalem and Diablo. I’d been coveting the summit for several years and was finally prompted into action by recent trip reports from Fay Pullen and Mike Torok, who climbed it as a party of ten (POT). Kevin K. and John M. eagerly joined me for this long-day adventure. We managed to experience plenty of ups and downs, as well as one bizarre twist of fate…literally!

Knowing that Saturday would be long and hot, we dirt-bag camped near the Gorge Creek Overlook parking lot (Elev 1100 feet) on Friday night. At 6:00am the next morning, we strolled across the metal bridge and dove into the deep forest. Although very steep, the forest wasn’t too brushy or difficult. We encountered cliff bands at around Elev. 2400 feet and 2800 feet but easily bypassed both on the right.

Above these, a network of animal paths ascended a slight ridge feature through open timber. Occasionally, we would see bootprints (probably from the POT), but for the most part this feels like unexplored terrain. Around Elev. 3800 feet, we started working left through vine maples until coming to a partially snow-filled gully at 4000 feet. This led us to a tiny talus draw at 4500 feet and on upward to alpine snowfields at 4800 feet. Thereafter, the travel and views were delightful. We eventually skirted around the left side of Point 5872 and came to a saddle at 5700 feet (4.4 hours from car).

From the saddle, we were presented with a steep rock buttress coming off the south summit ridge. It looked pretty unappealing. To the right, however, we saw wide-open snow slopes leading to the east summit ridge. That looked much better, so we decided to gamble on it.  (Editorial note: There’s a reason I don’t spend much time in Las Vegas.)

We traversed under the cliffy south ridge, with its impressive cornices, then ascended a steep snowfinger that terminated on the east ridge crest.

At a moat crossing near the top, we all roped up for running belays. John made a nice lead to the crest and farther up to a 6700-foot snow knob on the left.

This was all great fun until we found ourselves at an impasse 300 feet below the summit. One by one, our jaws fell open at the sight of the stupendous cirque on Davis Peak’s northeastern side. Wow!

We proptly tucked our respective tails between our legs and started down-climbing. Kevin and I got over the moat, then I gave John a fixed belay as he descended.

This is where fate intervened with a bizarre twist. As John crossed the moat, he suddenly fell backwards and started sliding headfirst down the lower snow slope! When the belay rope came taut, it was somehow twisted around his right thumb, which took the full brunt of rope tension. After he came to a stop, we did a quick assessment and determined that his thumb was slightly dislocated but not broken.

By the time we got back down to the 5700-foot saddle, we had lost about 2 hours, accumulated an extra 1000 feet, and gained a whole new appreciation for the extreme ruggedness of this surprising mountain.

Starting out again from the saddle, we climbed up the right flank of the rock buttress. What initially seemed to be very steep and loose actually turned out to be reasonable Class 2-3 scrambling, except for some slime-coated rock slabs near the top.

We eventually gained the ridge crest and then began a long stroll towards the summit.

Along the way, I was struck by a serendipitous view of Luna Peak framed by the summit cornice.  It was very reminiscent of the famous woodblock print, The Great Wave off Kanagawa, which shows Mt Fuji framed by a breaking wave. Gorgeous!

We stepped onto the summit rocks at 2:20pm (8.3 hours from car, including our extracurricular wanderings). As expected, the views were tremendous in all directions. An hour flew by before we were ready to begin our long descent.

We quickly descended the south ridge to the rock buttress, then made a single-rope rappel over the slimy upper slabs to a ledge below. Soon we were back around Point 5872 and able to glissade the snow slopes and snow gully to Elev. 4100 feet. Snow conditions had been perfect in both directions on this day: firm in the morning, soft in the afternoon.

Once off the snow, we traversed leftward into dense timber and began a 3000-foot plunge to the car. Kevin did a nice job of leading us down open forest. We somehow completely missed the upper cliff band but not the lower cliff band, which was dispatched by another single-rope rappel. We continued plunging down through noisy salal and finally stepped onto the emphatically level surface of Highway 20 at 7:30pm (4.1 hours from summit) to end a great day on a great mountain.

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