Here are some pictures Mike and I took when we climbed Del Campo in late August of 2002... The question for the day was whether or not to go to Leavenworth and climb Givler's Crack in Icicle Canyon, or hang around for something closer to home. A quick weather check showed 90-plus degree temps in Leavenworth, so closer to home it was! At least then, we'd only have to deal with 80 degrees... We hit the trail a little after 8 am, traveling light, and making pretty good time. After we hit the steeps, I had to downshift a gear, but Mike raced up to the waterfalls for some pictures. In the meantime, I caught up to another climber who called himself Frenchy, and his dog, Crystal. We hiked until I caught Michael at the falls, and Frenchy continued on.
After pictures at the falls, we again caught up to Frenchy, and diverted off on to the climbers trail, which heads directly to Del Campo, instead of Weeden Lake. This easily saves 30 minutes, and is much more direct. We took a break at the boulder field just below the chute on the approach, where Frenchy and Crystal caught back up to us. Instead of climbing the chute, we stayed left and were rewarded with some excellent class 4 and 5 scrambling, although some of the moves were on sketchy flake. Finally, a little after noon, we made the summit, and had great views of the surrounding Cascades, although the skies were a bit hazy. Below are highlights to the trip - to view the pictures full size, just click on the thumbnails... For reference, here is a topo map with a profile of the climb, and here is a relief map showing the surrounding terrain. To get an idea of what the area looks like in winter, please check out this trip report of an over-nighter at Foggy Lake we made last November...
| The
hike up... - The hike in follows
the Weeden Creek trail, named after O. N. Weeden, one of the
original homesteaders of the area. It gets interesting when the
trail breaks out of the trees, and you get your first views of the
surrounding area. At this point, you'll come across the first
of three waterfalls. One of the falls still had a snow cave
surrounding the stream. Mike took this shot of me standing
just inside the entrance. And then took
this shot looking out...
In the lower shot, Mike took this of me as I hiked below one of the exposed falls... |
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| Flowers... - Although we were beyond the peak for wildflowers, the fresh-scented white and pink heather were blooming. Mike took this shot of a young pink heather plant. He also took these shots of some heather next to one of the streams, along with this shot of some purple flowers... |
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| Start of the approach... - The approach starts at a spot where we camped at in November of 2001. Mike took this shot of Gothic Peak and Foggy Pass... Compare with a shot taken by me at dawn in November... |
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| Above Foggy Lake... - Once above Foggy Lake, the approach crosses a boulder field of a few hundred yards. We were lucky in that some of it was still covered by snow. As boulder fields go, this one is small, and the going is fairly easy... Mike snapped this picture of me following a short break above the lake. From the boulder field, proceed to a chute full of loose rock. It's a good time to put on your helmet also... |
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| Starting the scramble... - As we made our way off the boulder field, the real fun begins! Mike took this shot as we angle to the left of the chute, and hit some sweet class 4 and 5 stuff. You can see the loose rock we were avoiding in the left of this picture. Foggy Lake is below, providing a very scenic setting - but hey, what isn't scenic out here! |
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| Some
sweet scramble... - Once
clear of the chute, the climb becomes near vertical on mostly
good slab, with some dihedrals for spice. Mike took
these shots as I made my way, and pulling a low 5th class move
to get through one of the dihedrals. This was really
some nice stuff. There were some flaky spots, but most
of the moves were solid.
Further up the climb, about a hundred feet below the summit, I catch Mike as he tackles this problem... |
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| Summit Shots... - Once on top, we were rewarded with great (but hazy) views of the surrounding Cascades. Mike took this shot of me, with Mount Baker in the background. I took this shot of Mike with Sloan and Glacier Peak his background. I also took this shot of a group heading up to the summit of Gothic Peak, they're visible in the snow field to the left of the ridge approach. I also took this shot of Glacier and Sloan Peaks, and of Foggy and Weeden Lakes while on the summit... This scene on the summit was shared by several people on an awesome day with great weather... |
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| Mike pumps some water... - On the way down, we stop for a few minutes to pump some water. I took this shot with the true summit of Del Campo in the background, the third peak back. Mmmm, fresh water... Frenchy and his dog Crystal, are on the snow field... |
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| Crystal, the wonder dog... - The whole time we climbed, we were accompanied by Crystal, the wonder dog, and her master, Frenchy. Crystal did a great job, getting to within 20 feet of the summit, and was very well behaved. Other climbers disturbed the rock more than she did - except for once - when she knocked away a good size stone above me. But Mike was there to catch it, so no harm. Thanks Mike... Here, Crystal takes a well deserved rest in one of the streams on the way down! |
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