These peaks were climbed over a four day period, July 11-15, via the Downey Creek/Bachelor Creek approach. It was organized by Stefan F. who is largely responsible for the successful outing. The Downey Creek trail has some deadfall but it is manageable. The Forest Service is negligent with the log crossing over Bachelor Creek at 6 1/2 miles. This is a marked Green Trail and one has to cross on a narrow, cracking in the middle aging log. It is a widowmaker and the hiker should be aware. Bachelor Creek has a large volume flow that feeds into a whirlpool 15 feet away. The Bachelor Creek trail starts immediately on the right after crossing the bridge. It has more deadfall which becomes unnegotiable at about 4,000' when it meets a large slide alder avalanche zone. At this point one should follow the mantra of the Forest Service, ""Forget the Trails"", and head into the old growth on the north side of Bachelor Creek. One can travel crosscountry ENE easily with minimal brush to reach the ridge overlooking Mule Lake at ~5,150'. The map shows an outflow for this lake but I didn't see one. Continue onto the 6,000' pass overlooking Cub Lake. This area is under 4 feet of snow at present and Cub Lake is still frozen except for water at the edges. From Cub Lake we climbed up to Itswoot Ridge for our first campsite. This is a lovely ridge which looks across onto Dome Glacier and Dome Peak with the back door facing Mount Buckindy and Pilot Peak. The next day we travelled with ice axe, rope, and crampons only due north to ascend Spire Point via the Northeast Route. Crossing Spire Col was easy and the two rock pitches were on low Class 5 rock in the first trough (there are two possible) encountered on the left. Two single rope rappels brought us back to the top of Dana Glacier. Once back in camp we took our gear to the bivy site located at a high col located at 8,560' just north of the summit. This lies in the lee of two large granite boulders and has room for two tents. After making camp and resting for a few hours we made the easy 20 minute light ascent of 400' to the summit. We brought rope but it was not needed as traversing in the moat on the eastern edge of the summit ridge was the safest means of accessing the top. This peak should be saved for good weather days as the views are incredible. The next day we roped up for the descent through the col into Chelan County and the heavily crevassed Chickamin Glacier. Chickamin is the Chinook word for iron and one can see the red oxidized rock on the northern edge of the glacier. We traversed over to the saddle between Sinister and Dome going to the south then to look for a gully to gain the West Ridge. The gully looked too forbiding from our angle but it is deceptive. One has to continue walking further to see that a narrow finger of loose dirt appears from behind a rock wall. We took this route down from the top but on ascent jumped onto the West Ridge for an unprotected roped ascent on Class 3-4 rock for several hundred feet. After that the summit is reached easily. The gully used for descent has considerable rockfall potential and was done by only one person at a time. Then it was back across the Chickamin Glacier toward Gunsight Peak. Stefan lead the single pitch from the Glacier to reach the Class 3 rock which leads to the notch. This notch is caused by a distinctive volcanic dike of soft rock which is eroding much faster than the adjacent granite rock. Twelve feet beneath the top Stefan lead two rope pitches over 45 minutes to the cramped summit. A double roped rappel from the numerous slings 50 feet beneath the summit brought us back to Chickamin Glacier. Returning to camp we packed up for the final night at Itswoot Ridge. The weather threatened and looked menacing for the last night but only a few drops came down. A fantastic long weekend in a breathtaking area of Washington.

For those of you sadistic hikers, this certainly will provide plenty of pain for exquisite pleasure at the end. J. and I were planning on a July 4th departure, but the weather kept us in town one more day. Hitting the trail just before the crack of noon on Friday meant we were going to have to hoof it quick if we were going to get to our high camp before summiting Dome Peak on Saturday. The Downey Creek Trail is in fair shape with a few blow downs to climb over. However, once you reach Bachelor Creek, the fun begins. Crossing a small slippery log eight feet above the raging torrent or wading mid-thigh was one of those frying pan or fire choices. I chose the log and survived dry, J. waded and then wrung out his socks. At this point, the trail starts up immediately on the north bank. Not too steeply, but soon the first of dozens of downed trees some quite large blocked the trail. Then at about 3700' we encountered the first snow patches. Lower than I had expected. The trail had not seen much maintainence since 1977 when I had done it last. Devil's Club, Salmon Berries, Avalanch Alder, and tons of avalanch debris made the tread fainter and fainter until it became intermittant with serious bush-whacking bits in between. After awhile we gave up on trying to find the trail all together and just headed up through the forrest on more or less solid snow. (Occasional post holing) Just as the snow was becoming firmer and easy to walk on, at 4600', we rounded a bend where the valley heads northeast, and were shocked by the most awesome scene of natural destruction since Mt.St. Helens blew up. An avalanch had come roaring down from the west ridge of Spire Point and uprooted thousands of trees in is path leaving a quarter mile wide by mile long swath of absolute destruction. Walking over this jumble of logs, branches, and invisible holes was not our idea of fun, so we crossed what we had to, and went straight up through the woods. Finally, we crested the ridge at 5500' and easily walked up to the col above Cub Lake. It was 7:00 and time to set up the tent and cook dinner. Satuday we dropped down to the still frozen Cub Lake and easily climbed Dome Peak on perfect snow conditions under blue sky, surrounded by magnificent views in all directions. There was about 6"" of new snow above 8,000' from the 4th of July storm. That gave the high peaks a fresh mantle of brilliant white to contrast with the green below and blue above. Sadly, bushwacking down was almost as bad as going up and to make it a little more exciting, little black stinging gnats woke up and swarmed around us in clouds. This is a difficult hike, but I highly recommend it. Seeing the magnitude of the avalanch debis will give special and well deserved respect for the powerful forces of nature.

Getting there: Drive the Suiattle River road about 21 miles and just after crossing Downey Creek, turn into the TH parking lot. With a Ptarmigan traverse trip coming up, we decided to hike the Downey Cr. trail to see what the trail conditions and the crossing of Bachelor Creek were like. We found the Downey Cr. trail to be in pretty good shape compared with what it’s been in previous years. There are many logs down but only a half dozen or so pose any difficulty getting by. The problem logs are mainly between mile 1 and mile 2. The Salmon Berry is now grown and covers the trail in places (better hope its dry). There is no snow remaining and from the looks of things, Bachelor Creek should be snowfree at least a couple of miles. There is a small half-rotten log across Bachelor Creek, which will do (the creek was running and high requires a log). A few flies are out but not bad, but in a few weeks probably be more.

LATE REPORT: June 13,14,15 climbing trip to Dome Peak.Weather exceptional. Probable that not much has changed in 3 weeks since we were there. * Downey Creek trail has numerous downfalls to negotiate and lots of water to negotiate. Creek crossings were high but manageable. The one crossing 1 mile before Bachelor Creek is worst. We lost 2 ski poles, and one of us took a brief dunking, going each way. Next time we'll just walk across or usegood stiff staffs. *Bachelor Creek crossing still on log, which sometime in coming years will give out. Try crossing with pack belts unbuckled in case you fall in. Creek swelling and high. *Trail up to bachelor meadows, east side, is easy to find, but is not maintained. First 11/2 miles in good shape. From there you start bushwacking. We crossed on snow still covering creek, in middle of open Avalanche basin about 21/2 miles from Downey Creek. We saw other spots further downstream on logs. *Base camp: instead of following bachelor creek to headwaters below Cub lake Pass, we opted to follow beautiful wide snowchute up to ridge about 1 mile sw of pass. Great sites to camp with views. our plan to follow ridge to pass the next morning didn't work, as its not a scramble - there is a rapple in there. However, there is room to drop down on nw side and still negotiate around ridge. Snowpack around our tent fell 4' while were gone on climb: in one day! *Route to Dome peak: The 600'drop to Cub lake is snowpacked deep. So, rather than downclimb to Cub, cross basin,then ascend, we chose to traverse north staying up high around the bowl at about 6,800-7000'. We did it without ropes, due to great soft snow conditions. however, crossing it on rock and heather is not advised. We also didn't downclimb to Cub lake as there is nothing stopping a swim in lake, unless roped. We returned via Cub lake basin, where avalanche damage is considerable. *Dome peak/glacier: We roped up but encountered no hidden crevasses. Stunning beauty here. Final ascent was on snow all the way. At 8935' we could see virtually everything. We chanced a late summiting at 5:30pm, and made the return to basecamp under starry skis. Advise base camping closer to peak. it was just too far. Private stories of this return we'll save for friends. *Overall: We all agreed this was one of all time greats, but also most rugged. Doing it in 3 days way to short. 40+miles and 10K gain, bushwacking, etc. in 3 days? Not next time. There were great glissades, and this portion of ptarmigan traverse is breathtaking, especially jumping off edge of cornice to glissade down at one point! Wow!!

Hmmm, part of this trip is in WTA's ""North Cascades"" section, part in ""Glacier Peak"" section. Hope the database folks can handle this incredible complication! The Cascade Pass trail is in excellent condition to the Pass. Usual splendid views. We continued to Cashe Col on Aug 25, which had a slight moat problem. From there we climbed ""not Magic Peak"". Oops. Over the top of Cashe Col is a trail to Koolade Lake, our first camp. The next morning we scrambled Magic (for real this time) then hiked to Red Ledge. The snow is steep and hard to the ledge, but not a problem in crampons. The trail continues to the Middle Cascade Glacier. One moat problem there with a 10' 75 degree angle ice climb to cross a crevasse. Should be ok for a little while longer. A steep descent where we saw the only people on the traverse doing some geology studies. Then traversing on talus and snow to Yang Yang lakes for the second camp. Then trail up and up and a traverse along the Le Conte Glacier. One belayed crevasse crossing for one climber whose legs turn to rubber when spreadeagled across a crevasse. We scrambled Old Guard Peak. Then down some snow and talus to the South Cascade Glacier (easy travel) then pretty steep snow and talus to White Rocks Lake for our third camp. A trail that seems to descend way too low drops from White Rock Lakes, so we stayed high and traversed on heather, talus, and snow to the Dana Glacier. It was a straight-forward ascent to the base of Spire Point. We climbed up Spire, then dropped towards Cub Lake. The trail is in good shape to the lake. Beyond the lake is a fabulous blueberry patch, severely restricting travel. Much stained, we continued to a camp at the upper end of Batchelor Creek. The trail down Batchelor is very brushy in sections, but easy to follow. We got wet from the dew. The Downey Creek trail is in very good condition, with a few muddy sections and some possibly slippery bridges. That area was a nice contrast to the high country, with superb rain forest moss carpeting and some huge trees.