Trip Date: September 25, 2005

Sluiskin Chief Day Climb

Carbon River
Windy Gap
Sluiskin Saddle
Sluiskin Mountain: The Chief aka The Sluiskin Chief (7026 ft)

Trip Report Summary

Region: Southern Washington Cascades

Sub-Region: Mt. Rainier Massif

Area: Mt. Rainier National Park

Starting & Ending Point: Carbon River Trailhead at Ipsut Creek Campground at end of Carbon River Road (Elev. 2350 feet)

Way Points: Carbon River & Yellowstone Cliffs Camp & Windy Gap & Van Horn Basin & Sluiskin Saddle (trail hike & rock scramble)

Summit: The Sluiskin Chief (rock scramble via West Slope—North Ridge)

Approximate Stats: 16 miles traveled; 6000 feet gained & lost; 4.4 hours up; 3.4 hours down.

Related Posts

>>> Northern Loop Trail Circuit + Sluiskin Mountain: The Chief – September 2022

>>> Sluiskin Mtn: The Squaw via East Slope—East Face – September 2006

Full Trip Report

Sunday’s great weather beckoned me down to Mt. Rainier National Park for an attempt on Sluiskin Mountain, which is located in the Park’s north-central sector between the Carbon River and White River.  I started out from the nearly full parking lot at Ipsut Creek Campground around 9:30am and hiked 2 miles up the Carbon River Trail.

After easily crossing the low-flowing river on a series of foot logs, I followed the immaculate Northern Loop Trail to 5800-foot Windy Gap (2.4 hours from TH).  The beautiful, rolling, heather meadows and warm sun here demanded a short lunch break.  Sluiskin Mountain’s two principal peaks—The Chief and The Squaw—stood out prominently to the southeast.  The Chief seems particularly well named, for its dark rock, sheer faces, and sharp edges do give the impression of a stoic, weather-beaten countenance.

I continued hiking eastward over the gap, dropping down 250 feet to a bench feature, at which point I left the trail and descended toward a canyon on the right.  This didn’t go a smoothly as I had hoped; I quickly got stalled by brushy cliff bands and had to go back up and then farther east.  Eventually, I managed to reach the grassy canyon bottom (at 5200 feet) and started up the opposite side.

Steep grass and heather slopes transitioned into barren, rocky slopes leading to the 6500-foot Sluiskin Saddle between The Chief and The Squaw.  These slopes would normally be covered with snow, but now they consisted of rocks that are in that really annoying size range between scree and talus.  Just for purposes of this report, let me call it “scralus.”

From the Sluiskin Saddle, I cut left and ascended more scralus to The Chief’s north ridge, then scrambled a short distance up the ridge on Class 2-3 rock.  At the top of a large slabby ramp, I abruptly encountered a vertical step.  I casually looked to the left and right for an easy Class 3 route over this step (after all, the climb was advertised as Class 3), but nothing immediately appeared.  Hmmm?  Well, there must be an easy way around to one side or the other.

I spent a good 20 minutes checking out possibilities on the northwest, northeast, and east sides.  After evaluating at least five routes, I determined that two—one directly up the ridge nose and another 30 feet to the right—were in the Class 3+ or 4 range; the others were Class 4-5.  I decided to try the right-hand route because it had considerably less exposure (10 feet versus 100 feet).

I followed the large ramp around to the right, then scrambled 8 feet up to a small ledge.  Further progress required making a very interesting leftward Class 4 step-around move to get past a sharp projection of rock that was shaped liked the prow of a boat.  Fortunately, the rock was solid here, and the holds were adequate.  Whew!  Once past the crux, I continued up the ridgeline for about 200 feet, over a series of fun Class 3 rock steps.

The three rappel slings and two rappel pitons I saw along the way indicated that at least a few climbers besides me have regarded this route as beyond normal Class 3.  With a sense of delight and relief, I made the final few moves onto the summit (4.4 hours from TH).

I spent a while on the warm summit, ogling the northern reaches of the Park.  Several inviting lakes could be seen below Windy Gap, and a vast area of meadowland sprawled in all directions.

Rainier’s ominous Willis Wall played in stark counterpoint to the greenery.

On a more local level, I noticed that The Squaw seemed as high or higher than my position on The Chief, even though the USGS map shows it to be more than 26 feet lower!  Could the map be that far off?  I sighted in with a water bottle level and convinced myself that my summit was indeed higher than The Squaw, but only by a mere 10 or 15 feet at most.  The topo map probably missed a contour line; I think 7010 or 7015 feet is a conservatively realistic summit elevation for The Squaw.

I started down at 2:15pm and closely followed my ascent route.  The step-around move at the “prow” was easier the second time past, but still exciting.  I got down to the scralus slopes and carefully stumbled my way down to the grassy canyon bottom.  From this perspective, I could see an easy route between cliff bands to get me back up to Windy Gap.  To make things even better, I soon encountered a game path that led directly to the trail.  (For future reference:  When hiking east from Windy Gap, this game path can be found leaving the trail at a point 50 yards past the first footlog, bearing southeasterly.)   Several hours and 7 miles later, I hobbled into the Ipsut Creek parking lot (3.4 hours from summit) on sore but happy feet.

Route Comments

The Chief is truly a fun and worthwhile climb, in a wonderfully scenic area.  However, the route descriptions in both Cascade Alpine Guide and Climbing Washington’s Mountains are inadequate if not misleading.  CAG would lead you to believe that it’s Class 3 from the Sluiskin Saddle to the north ridge, at which point a bit of inconsequential scrambling gets you up to the summit.  In actuality, it’s hands-mostly-in-pockets Class 1-2 from the saddle to the north ridge, and then very consequential Class 3-4 scrambling begins.  CWM does only a slightly better job; at least it mentions that the final scramble is exposed.

Photo Gallery

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