Little Devil Peak - Week 7

This weeks class outing was planned for Coleman Glacier in order to do some training in glacial travel and crevasse rescue techniques. However, due to access problems we changed to Little Devil Peak which is off the Monogram Lake and Lookout Mountain trail in the North Cascades. The climb in is substantial even in the summer but with the snow sill in the high country it was brutal; at least for me. We did 5,000 feet of elevation gain going in with about 3,000 of it in soft deep snow and some very steep stretches. The entire hike in was only 5.4 miles but with the elevation and conditions it took us close to seven hours. Our climb up took so long that we ended up only doing demos of different anchoring techniques as well as rescue pulley systems, had dinner and hit the sack.

Sunday morning broke sunny with some high clouds and a bit of wind on the ridges. We climbed up towards Little Devil, roped up in teams in order to get a bit of practice, then the group split into those who wished to practice crevasse rescue and those who wanted to make a fast push for the summit. I chose to stay and do crevasse work which I found very beneficial and fun. As it turned out those who went for the summit had to retreat due to avalanche danger. Once they returned it was decided to get the heck out of dodge due to the quickly warming conditions and actual wet slab avalanches happening around us.

The trip out was equally brutal and ended up with a little unplanned bushwhacking after the lead team made a wrong turn. That only added to the soft heavy snow and steep grade issues which combined to wipe most everyone out a few times on the way down. This was by far the hardest hike I have ever done, even harder than Baker last year. And although I know it sounds like it was horrible this area is so beautiful that it was worth the trip up and back. Just wish the conditions would have been a bit better and safer.