Group of 4 summited Bonanza on 7/31 via Mary Green glacier on a single push from Holden Ballpark campground. Around 6k ft gain over 14mi in 21h.
Gpx: https://caltopo.com/m/L69K1
Gear: ax, crampons, mountaineering boots, approach shoes / trail runners, glacier & crevasse rescue & rappel gear, sleeping & cooking gear, 10 essentials. Mask for the bus ride and indoor places at Holden village. 70m rope and a few cordelettes for the group. Decided to leave the rock rack and radios behind.
Day 1 (7/31):
Due to the heat warning throughout the weekend, we opted for a single push and camping <1mi outside the Holden village at the Holden Ballpark campground, instead of lugging our overnight packs up to Holden lake or Holden pass during the high heat of the day, knowing that we wouldn't be on the trail until afternoon due to the logistics of boat + bus transportation. This also allowed us to carry some luxurious items (sandals, extra snacks and shirts) and to rest well on day 1.
Chelan to Lucerne via the Lady Express boat, Lucerne to Holden village via bus and arriving at noon. Many chipmunks in the village center searching for human food. The bags of my approach shoes and bread (on the top of my backpack) got chewed. Keep an eye on your backpack here. After chugging some cold apple juice and a quick lunch (rice and beans!) at the dining hall, we had a casual 0.8mi walk on mostly gravel road to the Holden Ballpark campground and set up our tents and hammock for the next two nights. The campground has a toilet, two picnic tables, a bear locker, easy access to the Railroad creek for water refill, a large shaded area for tents, and many trees for hammock setup. Saw a dear and a bear at the camp. Make sure to store your food in the bear locker. Many mosquitoes in the afternoon with the heat.
Left the campground at 11:30pm and made a quick stop at the bear locker to retrieve our food and eat breakfast.
Day 2 (8/1):
Plenty of water sources (creek, streams, lake, waterfall) up to the top of the waterfall slab. Snow started at the glacier. Mosquitoes were brutal.
Ascent:
- Holden lake: much overgrown on the trail. 3 stream crossings before the lake - water level was currently low so rock hopping was easy. A toilet (with a sign) at the SE side of the lake. Blooming flowers!
- Holden pass: navigating from the lake to the pass in the dark was confusing and we spent quite some time on the thick bushes and slider alder but everyone was actively navigating and tried everything we could ... Found the trail around 400-500ft before the pass. One large snow patch as water source. Once it's melted (looks like soon), you'll need to hike back down the trail (short distance) and refill from the creek. Many dry tent spots.
- Waterfall slab: took out helmet. Aimed for the green ledge, which turned out to be the most sketchy part of the climb for me personally. The ledge traverse was wet and required carefully finding dry hand & foot holds. Runout was a moat. The slab was relatively dry and easy in the morning. We were able to find a set of dry ledges to hop on and zip zag our way up. Switched to mountaineering books, roped up at the top of the waterfall, and took out ax and crampons.
- Mary Green glacier: many wide open crevasses that were easy to navigate around. Appreciated the nice boot tracks established by the recent groups. Traversed above the bergschrund. Exiting the glacier onto rock required carefully walking around two moats and a shallow snow bridge.
- Rock scramble: the final 900ft of scramble was overall pretty solid (compared to its neighboring peak - Martin) with a few loose gullies where rockfall chances were high. Tried careful footing, avoiding being above/below someone else's fall line and yelling "rock" whenever we kicked down rocks. Many ledges to zig zag our way up. We were leap frogging with two other groups and using each other as reference for the route finding. At some point, everyone was off route and in some low class 5 terrain. I was glad to work on my exposure tolerance during some careful but committing moves - some bouldering moves on the slabby rock, some big steps in the wet gullies, bear hugging on narrow and exposed traverse. Also kept an eye on the established rappel stations for the descent (saw at least 5-6). Final stretch to the summit was an exposed ridge but with relatively solid rocks.
Descent:
- Rock scramble: group members did 1-3 rappels from the summit and downclimbed as much as we could to save time and get rope unstuck from the cracks after the last person rappelled. We assessed each rap station and doubled it with with another carabiner when there's only one ring/carabiner (except for the last person).
- Glacier: put in a deadman anchor before the moat and another one at the beginning of the traverse. We were extra careful with probing around and our footing near the moat and on the traverse since we expected mushy snow on such a hot day, knowing the runout was to the bergschrund.
- Waterfall slab: the slab was much more wet than in the morning after more snow has melted and the waterfalls gushing. We gladly found an established rappel anchor (two pitons and two purple webbings). 70m rope got us down to the base of the waterfall (before the green ledge traverse) with a few feet to spare. The traverse was almost completely wet and more sketchy this time. The other group we chatted with did another rappel onto the snow and said it worked out well (moat wasn't a big issue).
- Holden pass: descending from the pass to the lake was straightforward in the daylight and we were able to follow a climber trail with some boulder hopping, minimal slider alder / bushwhacking and only a few swamps. Mosquitoes were all out and ready to eat us alive.
- Holden lake: knowing it's easy trail from here, we walked as fast as we could to try to out-hike the mosquitoes.
0210 East side of Holden lake
0430 Holden pass
0530 Green ledge
0600 Base of waterfall slab
0615 Top of waterfall slab. Roped up and entered Mary Green glacier
0830 Exited glacier onto rock. Stash glacier gear
0840 Started the last 900ft of scramble
1020 Summit
1030 Started descending
1345 Base of rock scramble. Retrieved glacier gear. Roped up.
0220 Started glacier descent
0340 Exited glacier / top of waterfall slab
0440 Off rappel from the slab
0715 Cleared the green ledge
1750 Holden pass
1900 East side of Holden lake
2030 Campground
Day 3 (8/1):
Transportation day - Holden village to Lucerne via bus, 1h at the dock to spare and swim, Lucerne to Chelan via Lady Express.
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