Vesper Peak, Headlee Pass and Vesper Lake — Friday, Jul. 26, 2002

North Cascades > Mountain Loop Highway

Four of us went off to do Sperry and Vesper in one day. Having previously done this I knew it would be a long day but quite doable. So myself, Ira, joined up with Paul, Fred and Steffan. Paul is 40 this year so in honor of this momentous occasion he has decided to summit 40 peaks. We left the Sunrise Mine trailhead at 10:15 (not exactly an early start) but early enough. The major stream crossing went fairly smoothly but the main log over the water has been turned sideways so the flattened section is not walkable. This makes it a bit more challenging but not too much of a problem. The trail then gets steep and stays that way. Eventually you get into the big valley leading up to Headlee Pass. It's currently covered in snow from avalanches. The power of an avalanche is very apparent here as there are many 1 1/2 foot diameter trees that have been snapped off and dozens of smaller trees that are bent over with their limbs torn off. Pretty impressive! It's easiest at this time to leave the trail and head straight up the snow. When you are most of the way up the valley you head off right to join the trail up in the rocks. This will take you up to the Headlee Pass chute. There is no snow in the chute at this time. Crampons are therefore not necessary for the pass or for vesper and sperry. However, you will need an ice axe if doing Vesper. We got to the top of the pass about 2 hrs from the trailhead, 2 1/2 miles, 2500 ft gain. Not too bad considering we were in a cloud the entire time making it difficult to find the trail and the pass. Some lunch at the pass and we continued on the trail to the stream. At this point you have to make a decision to do Sperry or Vesper. If Vesper, you just cross over the stream and head up the trail and snow to the summit. If Sperry, which is what we did, you head off to the right, up the valley on snow passing the lake on the right hand side. The easiest route is to go all the way to the end of the valley and work your way up rock to the low point on the ridge. We decided to make it a bit more interesting by heading up slightly before the end of the valley and scramble up the rock slabs to the ridge. This is a class 3 scramble. Once on the ridge top we followed the trail up to a snowfield. There we headed straight up the snowfield to the rock ridge above us. We found a boottrack that seemed like a good option for continuing so we followed it. There are numerous boottracks on the rock but if you can follow the trailmarkers that appears to be the best route to the summit. We summited 4 hrs from the trailhead. As for views, they would have been great if we could see anything but we were in a cloud and could see absolutely nothing. We then discussed whether we should do vesper or not. We were split on this idea but eventually went along with Paul (since he was calling us wimps) as he really wanted to bag #30, Sperry being #29. There are two ways of going to Vesper from here. Both involve dropping down to the low point on the ridge. One is to ascend the adjoining ridge to Vesper. It's still snow covered and not being sure exactly how steep the snow was we passed on this route as the run out is a long drop over a cliff. Instead we dropped back down to the lake, went around on the right side and up one of the snow gulleys. These are rather steep and an ice axe is absolutely mandatory here. A fall would not be pleasant and self arrest is questionable. These can be avoided by going further down the valley near where the trail crosses the creek. Once above the gulley we climbed on snow, occasional steep trail, and more snow until we reached the summit rock. The summit rock is very easy to get up. There we had the same wonderful views we had on Sperry - clouds. A nice break there among the warm rocks and we glissaded down to the stream, with some trail walking interspersed. Up to the pass and back to the car at 7:30. About 10 miles, 5200 ft of elevation gain. A nice two peak day with a combination of snow climbing and rock scrambling.