Trip Date: July 2-5, 2015

Mt. Misch & Mt. Buckindy Climbing Trip

Green Mountain Basin
Lake 5371
Horse Lake Saddle
West Misch Basin
Mount Misch (7435’)
Mount Buckindy (7320’+)

Trip Report Summary

Region: North-Central Washington Cascades

Sub-Region: Suiattle Mountains

Area: Glacier Peak Wilderness

Starting & Ending Point: Green Mountain Trailhead at end of Green Mountain Road (Elev. 3500 feet)

Way Points: Green Mountain Basin & Green Mountain Ridge & Lake 5371 & Saddle 5760 & Point 5890 & Horse Lake Saddle (trail hike & off-trail hike & bush thrash & dirt scramble)

Campsites: Horse Lake Saddle & Lake 5371

Sidetrip: Horse Lake slope & West Misch Basin (off-trail hike & bush thrash)

Bivouac Site: West Misch Basin (Elev. 5200 feet)

Summit: Mt. Misch (off-trail hike & snow climb & rock scramble via West Ridge—Southwest Gully)

Summit: Mt. Buckindy (snow climb & rock scramble & rock climb via Northwest Couloir—Northeast Face)

Approximate Stats: 20 miles traveled; 11,600 feet gained & lost.

Full Trip Report

Fay, Kevin K, Eileen, and I spent Independence Day Weekend climbing Mt. Misch and Mt. Buckindy, two major peaks in the Suiattle Mountains. The approach to these peaks has a reputation for difficult sidehill travel. We found that it is nothing short of a side-hilling sufferfest…but worth the agony.

Day 1: Trailhead to Horse Lake Saddle

Our first day involved toiling up the newly re-accessible Green Mountain Trail in 90-plus-degree heat. This trail is in fine condition despite little use since 2003, and the lookout cabin once again stands proudly on the summit. Several hundred feet below the cabin, we crossed over the ridge and dropped into a little basin. The ridge gave us a first look at our objective peaks and the general traverse route. Those vivid green slopes look so inviting, you get a sense that this will be pretty straightforward. It isn’t.

A couple hours later, we found ourselves contouring across frustratingly steep and slippery vegetation en route to Lake 5371. Trekking poles and ice axes helped to maintain an upright position, but it was still just a long succession of slips, slides, and falls. At the lake basin (5.9 hours from TH), we met a party of three—Mark, Tom, and Tehoot—setting up camp. They were surprised that we intended to push on beyond the scenic basin. In retrospect, they had it right; we should have planned for another day.

Exiting from the lake basin required several hundred feet of “scrambling” up ridiculously steep forest duff to gain the crest of a spur ridge. This duff was equivalent to Class 4 rock. Between the heat and steep angle, we felt thrashed upon reaching the crest. A muddy basin on the other side tempted us to stop for the day, but we decided to keep going for the sake of a strategic campsite. More steep greenery and super-steep forest got us to a 5760-foot saddle and a faint climber’s path that led up Point 5890 for a nice view of Buckindy and Misch.

From Point 5890, we hiked down the crest to an agreeable campsite closely above 5360-foot Horse Lake Saddle (10.6 hours from TH). It had been a strenuous day, and we were well past being ready to stop. A tiny puddle provided us with much-needed water, which had the color of a fine Kentucky bourbon even after being filtered. Fortunately, the sunset views of Dome Peak and Glacier Peak compensated for this.

Day 2: Summit Climbs + West Misch Basin Bivouac

The next day began with a change in our climbing strategy. Rather than packing up and moving camp over toward Buckindy and Misch, we decided to leave camp at the saddle and instead attempt to day-trip over to the peaks. In case things ran longer than expected, we all took bivy sacks and a little extra food.

A vague climber’s path went northward up the ridge crest and gave us a look at the remarkable crags of Mt. Chaval.

We ascended to Elev. 6300 feet and then dropped down to the left.

More unpleasant traversing ended at a delightful 5200-foot basin on the western flank of Mt. Misch (3.4 hours from saddle camp).  We took a break here in “West Misch Basin” and scoped out our route ahead.

From the basin, we ascended a gorgeous lupine slope toward Mt. Misch, then traversed moderate snow fields over to the peak’s west ridge.

Once on the rock of Mt. Misch, we made good use of a detailed trip report by Paul Klenke. He accurately described a traverse into an initial gully, followed by another traverse into a larger gully on the mountain’s southwest face. Although this latter gully has a reputation for being extremely loose, we found it to be fairly typical in terms of loose rock, but steep enough (with lots of Class 3+ scrambling) to keep things fun and interesting.

We reached the summit in mid-afternoon (7.9 hours from saddle camp) and enjoyed a full half-hour on top.

The summit register includes a foreword by Peter Misch, the eminent North Cascades geologist and U.W. professor. He never climbed his namesake peak but was alive to see its official dedication.

We made two rappels down the gully, then scrambled back to the snowfield. It was getting to be late afternoon, but we elected to head over to Mt. Buckindy while in the neighborhood.

In a little glacially carved bowl closely south of Mt. Buckindy, we encountered a strange cluster of wooden timbers and metal debris. Are these are the remnants of a previous geological exploration? We might never know.

A steep snowfinger on the western side of Mt. Buckindy ended in a small notch between its north and south summits. One long pitch of Class 3-4 climbing ended on the south (true) summit.

Views from the summit were a bit better than from Mt. Misch, owing to its more central position. The warm evening sunlight enhanced to red hues of the oxide-stained metamorphic rock.

We descended by scrambling over the north summit and then plunge-stepping down sandy slopes adjacent to the snowfinger.

A south-trending descent of talus, scree, and green slopes dumped us into West Misch Basin at 10:20pm, shortly after dark. Mark, Tom, and Tehoot were asleep in their tents as we stumbled through their camp. We fell into our bivy sacks and shivered through a surprisingly chilly night.

Day 3: West Misch Basin to Lake 5371

When morning finally arrived, we quickly packed up and headed back toward our saddle camp. About halfway along our traverse, we encountered Stefan Feller and Mike Collins, who were going in to climb Mt. Misch. They had camped in Horse Lake Saddle, next to our camp, and were planning to day-trip over to the peak. We took Stefan’s car key to help them out with a car shuttle from Green Mountain TH to Downey Creek TH.

Back at our saddle camp, we rested for several hours before packing up and starting a hot traverse over to Lake 5371. The crux of our afternoon was a descent of the inhumanely steep forest duff slopes above the lake basin. We managed this descent by making four full-length rappels and then down-climbing one pitch of Class 5 dirt (no kidding). Two ice tools would have been very helpful here.  Our last night was spent in a pleasant meadow below the lake.

Day 4: Lake 5371 to Trailhead

Our last day was a blur of horrible vegetative traversing back to Green Mountain, then easy hiking down to the trailhead (5.9 hours from lake). We all agreed that this was a trip that is well worth doing once—but never again.

Route Maps

Photo Gallery

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