Sloan - Corkscrew Route

Zak Bisarcky sent out an email to the WAC email list searching for out-of-work people who wanted to join him on a climb. A few of us responded, and after many emails back and forth, Zak, Rob Hurvitz and I decided to conquer Sloan Peak as a one day adventure.

We met at 65th Street Park and Ride at 5am on July 15th (mid-week) and set out for the Mountain Loop Highway. I decided that we should try the new Mountaineers route starting from Bedal Creek rather than the old Sloan Creek route. I had a topo map and compass, so I figured we could wing it even if we couldn't follow the route directions, which were a little obtuse.

We hiked up Bedal Creek trail for a half hour, then at some point decided that we had gone far enough and turned to head straight up the hill through steep open forest. After several hundred feet of climbing, we turned east and traversed through the forest. I was worried that we might go too far and end up under steep cliffs, but it turns out that we were supposed to keep going east until the forest ended at an open drainage. Instead, we turned and headed up to 5000' through the forest, and then had to bushwhack across nasty brush for much longer than we needed to in order to reach the saddle at 5330'. Crossing the saddle, we joined up with the Sloan Creek route, and aimed for a point just west of a small knoll at 5852'. Here we reached snow and the glacier was ahead of us. We roped up and headed straight up the glacier. Some crevasses were evident, but there was lots of snow and the hike up was easy. We traversed a short ways over to the SW corner of the glacier at 7200' and exited onto rocks, where we left our glacier gear and ice axes.

We followed a well-defined but exposed goat/climber trail for a ways along the south and west slopes until it climbed up to a gully. We scrambled (3rd class) up the gully and followed the ridge above to the summit. The views are beautiful in all directions, as Sloan is the tallest peak in the area, with the exception of Glacier Peak rising not too far to the east. We never saw another person on the whole trip. I like climbing on a weekday. After a half hour or relaxation, we headed down the way that we had come up.

Crossing the saddle, we headed down the open drainage, which was also a difficult and steep bushwhack. Once in the forest, things got easier, and we made it back to the car at 6:30pm - 10.5 hours car to car with breaks.