C2C of Big Craggy with Kiley.

We made it to the TH to camp the night before. Arrived just before it got dark. Camped on the map where it says Copper Glance Trailhead, about .3 miles north. This is where Eightmile Creek crosses under the road, in case the maps get updated sometime. This is not where the actual trail starts. Pitched two tents near the big, downed trees that outline the camp area.

On the way into camp, I noticed someone at a nearby site with a large DSLR camera and an impressive telephoto lens. I wasn’t sure what they were photographing—until around 10:20 PM, when we realized the Northern Lights had made a surprise appearance.

What followed was an absolutely breathtaking display. The sky lit up with vibrant waves of magenta, purple, green, and blue, dancing across the horizon. We stood in awe, watching the spectacle for nearly an hour, completely mesmerized.

Eventually, we had to tear ourselves away and crawl into our tents, knowing morning would come all too soon. But the memory of that night sky will stay with us forever.

We headed out from the trailhead at 6:20 AM. Making good time across the river crossing and up to the mine. The snow started when we rounded the final switchback that heads into the basin around 5,800ft. It was tedious trying to climb over the downed trees covered in snow as we were posting through. Not enough snow for snowshoes and the snow was too soft with the warmer weather to stay on top of the surface.

We headed up towards the SE ridge and took that to the slope below the summit. Took a route that was a mix of rocks and snow to the summit. The ladybugs were covering the summit blocks in a beautiful swarm. But not flying or moving on this day.

We carried crampons and didn’t need to use them because it was a warmer day. Didn’t carry or need snowshoes and avi gear.

Followed the steep snow on the descent for about 400 feet after leaving the summit. This helped make great time on the way down. Helping to make up for it feeling hard and slow on the way up.

Retraced our steps mostly and stuck to the ridge. We did cut over back to the trail to avoid going all the way into the basin. 

What a treat to great viewing of the Northern Lights from the TH the night before! Something we’ll always remember. Yes, that’s Big Craggy with the Northern Lights! 

I’m looking forward to going back again for West Craggy. We had hoped to get it on this trip, but with how slow we were moving through the wet loose and sloppy snow, we decided to skip it this time. As it would’ve added on a lot more time (distance over to West Craggy) and we would’ve had to go back through the basin where the snow was the worst with all the downed trees. 

GPX: https://peakbagger.com/climber/ascent.aspx?aid=2509642

We climbed Big Craggy on 9.30 and West Craggy on 10.1, with an overnight at Copper Glance Lake.

ROAD: The road was in great shape with a little washboarding and a couple of minor potholes. I made it without issue in my little car. Google Maps tries to take you a little further up the road than you need to go. No facilities at the TH.

TRAIL TO COPPER GLANCE LAKE: No snow to lake. Trail was in good shape with a few minor blowdowns to step over. The creek crossings were made easier with poles, especially since some logs were a little icy in the AM (it was COLD on Sat! 33 degrees at the trailhead...). Some areas of trail were brushy with fireweed that will make you all fluffy. The old mine was a fun little detour to check out. Larches were at prime and beautiful by the lake. 

There were really not many spots to camp at the lake. We got there early, worked our way around the lake and snagged the best site (honestly, all other potential sites looked pretty inferior), but the lake surroundings are pretty rocky.

BIG CRAGGY: We backtracked on trail after setting up camp and looked for a place to leave the trail where the deadfall/brush and hill angle up to the ridge looked manageable, which we did at just under 6000'. Gaining the ridge and following it up NW towards the summit block was fairly straightforward, with fairly open terrain and a bit of a bootpath to follow here and there. 

Things started to get steep and chossy at around 7800' and basically devolved into a pick-your-own-adventure of loose rocks and a little bit of class 2-ish scrambling up to the summit ridge. The top of the ridge had a dusting of 2-3" of snow (drifted a little deeper in areas). Once on the ridge, we couldn't tell which bump was tallest and there was too much snow for us to find any hiding summit registers, so we just walked along the bumps on the ridge and hoped we had hit the proper summit.

It was kind of late in the day by then and the weather was not very friendly (flurries, low clouds/meh visibility, wind gusts knocking me around), so we opted to just return to camp instead of trying for the traverse to W.Craggy. Getting down the scree without starting a landslide was the biggest hassle, but we made it without incident. 

WEST CRAGGY: We got a leisurely morning start after sleeping in, packed up, and headed out to the small tarn before the lake proper. We stashed all unnecessary gear here and then headed up - basically following the route of Copper Glance Creek. The brush was worst right at the start, but then the terrain opened up. For the most part we hugged the edge of the scree field where travel was easiest.

We stopped for a bunch of larch photos at a little tarn in the lower basin, before climbing up into a higher basin and beginning a lot of rock-hopping for the day. We side-hilled on rocks for what felt like forever, before climbing up a gully on our right at around 7200' to try and traverse above what looked like a cliffy area on our topo maps. This worked out, but was slow and tedious with some scrambling.

The GPS tracks we had downloaded for guidance went pretty much all the way to the end of the basin and worked up through the cliff band there. We came down that way instead and I think it might have been more straightforward.

Anyway, one final rocky/chossy gully climb later, we hit the summit ridge and followed that to the summit. Once again, a couple inches of snow dusted our path. There was a register on this one (yay!) but there was only a piece of paper in it, so if someone wants to bring a new booklet up that would be great.

Views were stunning from West Craggy and the weather was actually pleasant this day, so we enjoyed a summit snack before heading down and out.

WATER: Copper Glance Creek is your best bet in the valley. Nothing higher up (except snow now!).

HELMETS: Recommended. We set off a few rocks - it was really hard not to on these choss piles.

WANT MORE PHOTOS? Yeap, head on over to Instagram and follow along! @thenomadicartist

6.21.2023 – Big Craggy Peak, West Craggy Peak

Afternoon trip on the traverse between these two peaks in Pasayten. The road is easily passable even with the small washout near Copper Glance TH. Plenty of water sources throughout from the creek. One can avoid most of the scree on the ascent to both peaks by staying toward the scrambley rocks.

FOUND: Cascade Mountain Tech pole. DM me if you lost one.

I enjoyed the ascent to West C much more than Big C, partly because the rock was better and partly because on the way to Big C I was hit with a brutal cluster headache that resulted in partial loss of vision and nausea. Very strange and unexpected, but all in all it was a beautiful day out there. I love the burn zone meadow.

Happy summer!

The plan was to stay overnight at the lake at 6600ft, then bag Big Craggy Peak & West Craggy in the morning. Weather crushed this plan but it was still a great outing!

Getting to the trailhead: Mostly excellent forest road, first paved, then gravel. There's one short section near Honeymoon camp where the road was partially washed out. I managed just fine in my Mazda 6 but it might be tricky if you try to get in there in a Corvette.

Getting to the campsite: The trail is in good condition, occasionally there's greenery encroaching but nothing thorny. If it rained earlier you might get pretty wet though. On my way down my hiking boots turned into sponges quickly after passing through some meadows. There's three lakes in the vicinity: Copper Glance Lake (which is where the trail will lead you), a tarn at 6200ft, right next to the trail and another lake at 6600ft that's not marked on a topo map. The latter one was my destination. The best way to get there is to leave the trail when hitting the 6200 tarn and stay at the climber's left of the creek. There's no need to cross it (which is what I did on the way up though). If you stay on the left you can easily contour along the base of the rocks until getting to the tarn. If you go up on the right side of the creek you'll deal with lots of blowdowns that slows down progress.

Which reminds me: huge thank you to the trail crew which cleaned up all the blowdowns on the trail itself recently!

Once at the lake there are five or so solid camp sites with direct access to water (lake/creek). This is where things stopped going according to plan. I got to the lake fairly early, set up camp and then dozed off for an hour. When I got out of my tent again, about a half foot of snow had dumped! Since the forecast called for sub-freezing temperatures overnight, I aborted summit ambitions with the rock likely being either wet or worse, icy in the morning. With enough daylight left I packed up and hiked out the same day.

Despite not hitting summits I don't regret making the trip. After the recent wildfires in the area, there's lots of new plant life and wildflowers were in full bloom! Since temperatures were crisp and there was a slight breeze, no bugs encountered on the trail itself (neither at the lake), but they were coming out the moment I got back to the car.

GPS track: https://www.strava.com/activities/9292968956

ROAD/TRAILHEAD:

Road to copper glance TH is pretty nice, paved for most the way, then still pretty nice once on dirt. Camped at ruffed grouse campground the night before. 

TRAIL:

Copper glance trail is a pretty pleasant trail not steep but a nice gentle grade. We turned off after about 2.3 miles and 2000 feet of vert. From here there is no trail just head straight up the ridge all the way, we had a GPX track that was helpful but it is pretty intuitive to follow the first off trail section (I'll link our GPX below).

After about a mile and 1500 feet of vert things start to open up and you can see the false summit. From here its about 1/2 a mile and 700 feet of vert on super loose scree. At times it is quite miserable to walk on but if you hug the rocks to the right you can stay on solid rock for most of the way. I would recommend a helmet for here just because things would easily fall off and gain some speed moving. Just pick the safest route and keep distance from you and others in your group. 

~200 feet below the true summit you'll hit some false summits but it's clear to see whats the highest point, there is also a summit register there to tell the true summit. Was about 4600 feet vert & 3.8 miles to summit. Took about 4 hrs 20 min. Took us a little longer to find paths for out dog. Views from the summit were pretty good, they could have been much better if it weren't for the smoke. Enjoyed some food, photos, and signing summit register. Then started making our traverse over to west craggy.

Once again, it's pretty intuitive how where to go but having a GPX track can be helpful. You practically traverse the ridge for a while then drop down ~900 feet on loose scree and rock. After reaching the saddle and beginning to move up we decided to call it a day as members of our group didn't love the terrain and was feeling pretty anxious so we decided to head down the creek (which was empty) and following the creek more or less all the way to the pond. Then regained with the copper glance trail and had an enjoyable couple miles out.

SUMMARY

It was a great day even with smoke from farther south. Finished with 8.36 miles and ~4600 feet vert. However others measured closer to 10-11 & 4900 feet of vert. It's a super remote and unique adventure that is different than many of the hikes in the area. Larches are peaking right now there were awesome. Everything was slight eerie with the smoke which took away some of the views but the smoke should be clearing. The traverse from big to west craggy is defiantly pretty hard but is manageable with knowledge/experience of off trail movement and route finding.