Martin Peak, Cheops, Hoodoo Peak, East Fork Buttermilk, Switchback Mountain, Mount Bigelow & Raven Ridge — Thursday, Jul. 6, 2023

7.6.2023 – Switchback Mountain, Cheops, Martin Peak, Mount Bigelow, Hoodoo Peak, Raven Ridge

Big Methow day... Beautiful, hot(!), hazy. I knocked out a few miles on Wednesday night from Crater Creek TH and found a spot to test a bivy I recently bought, then on Thursday I linked up these 6 peaks in a clockwise loop. Best sections were the scramble up to Cheops and the surrounding Sawtooth ridge; and the climb up the long slabby west gully to Hoodoo’s ridge.

Few notes: From Cheops summit, I tried to get fancy and shortcut down to Boiling Lake via a NE gully. It sucked. I ended up making some very exposed moves onto horrible scree and rolling boulders. Taking the established ridge would’ve been better.

Instead of traversing from Bigelow to Hoodoo northbound via the ridge, I did an out and back of Bigelow and then returned to Hoodoo Pass, linking up briefly with E Fork Buttermilk Trail and then veering off on a northbound bushwhack until I found an awesome class 3/4 gully going west up to the ridge to Hoodoo. This took a while to route find but was lots of fun. Exceptionally buggy in the forest though…

There is a 5th class move or rappel going south on the ridge from Hoodoo towards Libby Peak. There was a bit of tat that I awkwardly rappelled from because it was raining hard. Then it started hailing which made my route up the friction slabs on the ridge very sketchy. I think you can stay climbers left in this area and avoid the knife edge section of the ridge if conditions necessitate.

Lots of gear death today. My boots died, my backpack finally died, my water filter cracked, all on the same day. Time to cash my REI points in!

26 miles, 9,000’ gain