It bears noting that before the snow fully melts out of the couloir that climbers may be faced with a steep climb up a snow arete with deep moats/drop offs to either side. Not for the faint of heart and definitely a good time to have crampons.
This is an accurate and important bit of additional info, thanks! As so often happens in tight slots in the North Cascades when the deep winter snows start to suddenly melt out you find these ramps of snow with deep trenches on either side, plus the snow can become suspended or hollow underneath. Definitely a warning is appropriate.
I found the exact same phenomenon in another similar slot nearby to the west, the one leading to the Otto-Himmelhorn col from CC basin. That one seems ever hairier to me, and the snow takes even longer to melt out, leaving giant suspended blocks.
Will keep this information in mind the next time I go to the Pickets. During 2014 I attempted a rather daring variation of the central Picket Range by using Goodell Creek. Past the Terror Basin turn off I saw the faint tracks you mentioned but then they disappeared. Due to not knowing it was an actual track I abandoned them and went down. This ended up being one of the worst buchwhacks I've ever dealt with. I was wishing for a hardy class 4 bushwhack and instead had nightmarish class 2 where I kept falling through holes covered in thorns, sticker bushes, and all sorts of non sense. I got a days worth of bushwhacking cuts in 20 minutes. I won't even go into the details of where it cut me up. Due to being solo along with all sorts of traps scattered around the place, I decided to call it quits due to not wanting to make a serious mistake.
"If you arrive on the creek side without any signs of trail, make it your mission to go back and find it, I cannot stress how critical this is."
Very true words. I'm willing to put up with a lot of "trashy climbs", however this is not one that you will want to mess around with. Thanks for taking the time to describe this. I'm guessing that you could use "Terror Pass" as an access route to Picket Pass?
The beta given on this page mostly seemed accurate. To provide some additional details, here's a brief version of our experience:
Climbed Sep 23-25, 2022. This is a solid alpine challenge, not an "easy climb" on an "easy mountain", with classic North Cascades challenges and stunning scenery. The approach is probably the hardest part, gaining 5900' over 8.2 miles, and will take most parties 8-10 hours. The first 3.6 miles are easy, with plenty of logs to go over/under. The trail splits there, you go left, and from here to Terror Creek there isn't a lot of elevation gain but the trail is rough and slow, and you will likely lose it several times. Crossing Terror Creek was easy in late Sep, earlier in the season you'll have to venture 10-20 minutes upstream to a fallen log. From Terror Creek the trail climbs straight up to the ridge, it's extremely steep, even for a climber's trail, not super dangerous but it's slow and you'll likely lose it a few times. Once on the ridge the angle is much easier but you will lose the trail dozens of times, almost guaranteed. From the ridge, you cut left onto slabs and heather benches, and getting to the col is somewhat easy. Several good bivies at the col. Descending and traversing to Crescent Ck is steep and loose but not too bad. We found a couple mediocre bivy sites near the creek at 48.76786, -121.30297, though there are probably more elsewhere. Water was flowing in Crescent Ck (5 min hike NW) in late Sep.
The traverse/scramble to the base of the gully was easy. The gully leading up to the notch was very loose and steep, a novice climber wouldn't feel safe here. Almost impossible to avoid rockfall. Where there is a sizeable side channel to the left, go left. There are some 5.0 moves. There is a rap station for the descent. At the top of this gully is the notch where the climb starts. The next part depends on conditions and route choice. You have to get over or around the 50' block to get to the face. Some people climb the block (5.0 moves), then rap off or downclimb. We climbed it and rapped off, but we should have scrambled around it on the left side near the base. On the other side of the block, some parties start at the mini-col between that block and the ridge face, then climb a crack up and left to the rap station (supposedly 5.4-5.6 but looked harder to me). There may be other variations here but they all looked hard and not easily protectable. We rapped about 50' down and left to a 4th class ramp, and climbed it up and right to the start of pitch 1. One option went straight up a big flake but the moves felt hard and pro was hard to place so we backed off, but it's a viable route. We went up and right onto the face following a crack, felt like 5.8 but with rock shoes and no pack it probably feels more like 5.6-5.7, pro was hard to place, we only got 2 mediocre cam placements in (sizes 0.5 and 0.75 I think). The hard part was 15-20' long, traversing up and right, then back left to the rap station. The rest of the climb was easy. At the base of the crux pitch, instead of taking either of these options, you can supposedly traverse left around the corner (maybe 30' of traversing) and bypass the crux with a 4th class scramble, but it looked exposed and hard to me, and others have said the same. The rest of the climb is easy, mostly 2nd-4th class scrambling, maybe a few 5.0 moves. At the false summit go right around the corner maybe 100-200' below the top of the false summit, traverse into the gully, and find yourself at the notch between the false and real summits. (If you go too high on the false summit, you can use the rap station to get down to the gully, though downclimbing and traversing is probably faster). Just before the notch, 4th or low 5th moves get you onto the face, and 4th class scrambling gets you to an exciting and airy summit with one of the best views in the whole park.
We downclimbed to near the first pitch, and did 2 raps to get to the main notch (not the higher notch). We downclimbed the gully and did 1 rap to get past the steepest section. Exercise extreme caution with rockfall. Then get ready for a lot of elevation loss back to the car.
3 full days is probably best for most parties.
In late Sep didn't need ice axe or crampons.
18.2 miles round trip, 7600' total gain
Klenke - Dec 23, 2015 12:47 pm - Hasn't voted
West Couloir in snow conditionsIt bears noting that before the snow fully melts out of the couloir that climbers may be faced with a steep climb up a snow arete with deep moats/drop offs to either side. Not for the faint of heart and definitely a good time to have crampons.
relic - Dec 24, 2015 3:18 pm - Hasn't voted
Re: West Couloir in snow conditionsThis is an accurate and important bit of additional info, thanks! As so often happens in tight slots in the North Cascades when the deep winter snows start to suddenly melt out you find these ramps of snow with deep trenches on either side, plus the snow can become suspended or hollow underneath. Definitely a warning is appropriate.
I found the exact same phenomenon in another similar slot nearby to the west, the one leading to the Otto-Himmelhorn col from CC basin. That one seems ever hairier to me, and the snow takes even longer to melt out, leaving giant suspended blocks.
Josh Lewis - Jan 13, 2016 10:39 pm - Voted 10/10
A Game Changer!Will keep this information in mind the next time I go to the Pickets. During 2014 I attempted a rather daring variation of the central Picket Range by using Goodell Creek. Past the Terror Basin turn off I saw the faint tracks you mentioned but then they disappeared. Due to not knowing it was an actual track I abandoned them and went down. This ended up being one of the worst buchwhacks I've ever dealt with. I was wishing for a hardy class 4 bushwhack and instead had nightmarish class 2 where I kept falling through holes covered in thorns, sticker bushes, and all sorts of non sense. I got a days worth of bushwhacking cuts in 20 minutes. I won't even go into the details of where it cut me up. Due to being solo along with all sorts of traps scattered around the place, I decided to call it quits due to not wanting to make a serious mistake.
"If you arrive on the creek side without any signs of trail, make it your mission to go back and find it, I cannot stress how critical this is."
Very true words. I'm willing to put up with a lot of "trashy climbs", however this is not one that you will want to mess around with. Thanks for taking the time to describe this. I'm guessing that you could use "Terror Pass" as an access route to Picket Pass?
KevinWells - Sep 27, 2022 2:18 pm - Hasn't voted
Solid alpine adventure!The beta given on this page mostly seemed accurate. To provide some additional details, here's a brief version of our experience:
Climbed Sep 23-25, 2022. This is a solid alpine challenge, not an "easy climb" on an "easy mountain", with classic North Cascades challenges and stunning scenery. The approach is probably the hardest part, gaining 5900' over 8.2 miles, and will take most parties 8-10 hours. The first 3.6 miles are easy, with plenty of logs to go over/under. The trail splits there, you go left, and from here to Terror Creek there isn't a lot of elevation gain but the trail is rough and slow, and you will likely lose it several times. Crossing Terror Creek was easy in late Sep, earlier in the season you'll have to venture 10-20 minutes upstream to a fallen log. From Terror Creek the trail climbs straight up to the ridge, it's extremely steep, even for a climber's trail, not super dangerous but it's slow and you'll likely lose it a few times. Once on the ridge the angle is much easier but you will lose the trail dozens of times, almost guaranteed. From the ridge, you cut left onto slabs and heather benches, and getting to the col is somewhat easy. Several good bivies at the col. Descending and traversing to Crescent Ck is steep and loose but not too bad. We found a couple mediocre bivy sites near the creek at 48.76786, -121.30297, though there are probably more elsewhere. Water was flowing in Crescent Ck (5 min hike NW) in late Sep.
The traverse/scramble to the base of the gully was easy. The gully leading up to the notch was very loose and steep, a novice climber wouldn't feel safe here. Almost impossible to avoid rockfall. Where there is a sizeable side channel to the left, go left. There are some 5.0 moves. There is a rap station for the descent. At the top of this gully is the notch where the climb starts. The next part depends on conditions and route choice. You have to get over or around the 50' block to get to the face. Some people climb the block (5.0 moves), then rap off or downclimb. We climbed it and rapped off, but we should have scrambled around it on the left side near the base. On the other side of the block, some parties start at the mini-col between that block and the ridge face, then climb a crack up and left to the rap station (supposedly 5.4-5.6 but looked harder to me). There may be other variations here but they all looked hard and not easily protectable. We rapped about 50' down and left to a 4th class ramp, and climbed it up and right to the start of pitch 1. One option went straight up a big flake but the moves felt hard and pro was hard to place so we backed off, but it's a viable route. We went up and right onto the face following a crack, felt like 5.8 but with rock shoes and no pack it probably feels more like 5.6-5.7, pro was hard to place, we only got 2 mediocre cam placements in (sizes 0.5 and 0.75 I think). The hard part was 15-20' long, traversing up and right, then back left to the rap station. The rest of the climb was easy. At the base of the crux pitch, instead of taking either of these options, you can supposedly traverse left around the corner (maybe 30' of traversing) and bypass the crux with a 4th class scramble, but it looked exposed and hard to me, and others have said the same. The rest of the climb is easy, mostly 2nd-4th class scrambling, maybe a few 5.0 moves. At the false summit go right around the corner maybe 100-200' below the top of the false summit, traverse into the gully, and find yourself at the notch between the false and real summits. (If you go too high on the false summit, you can use the rap station to get down to the gully, though downclimbing and traversing is probably faster). Just before the notch, 4th or low 5th moves get you onto the face, and 4th class scrambling gets you to an exciting and airy summit with one of the best views in the whole park.
We downclimbed to near the first pitch, and did 2 raps to get to the main notch (not the higher notch). We downclimbed the gully and did 1 rap to get past the steepest section. Exercise extreme caution with rockfall. Then get ready for a lot of elevation loss back to the car.
3 full days is probably best for most parties.
In late Sep didn't need ice axe or crampons.
18.2 miles round trip, 7600' total gain