Reynolds Peak the Back Way

Reynolds Peak (8,512ft) Car to Car the Back Way

57 miles, 13,000ft gain

October 6, 2018, 2:50am – 11:10pm

New Bulgers Fastest Known Time: 1 year 1 month 15 days 20 hours 29 minutes

I’d been waiting to climb Reynolds Peak since I got back to the US in late August, but unfortunately Reynolds had been closed on all sides by the Crescent Mountain Fire while I’d been away. I’d already climbed Reynolds Peak in June 2017, and had already finished climbing all the Bulgers (Washington hundred highest mountains) by late August 2018. However, I noticed that if I just re-climbed a few dozen of them I could get a completion time of close to one year.

As far as I had researched, the fastest known time to climb all the Bulgers was 4 years 3 months, by Franklin Bradshaw.

Finally in the end of September a new closure ordered was issued that opened up Reynolds Peak, sort of. The area above treeline to the east of Reynolds was open, but the area below treeline was still closed. The standard approach to Reynolds Peak is from the east, and it is normally a straightforward 12-mile round trip hike with a little bit of bushwhacking and scrambling. Most people do it as a day trip. However, this area was still actively burning and definitely closed.

The area to the west of Reynolds peak, in the Lake Chelan National Recreation Area, was completely reopened though. If I could just approach Reynolds from the west side I could climb it completely legally. It would not be easy, though. I would either have to take a ferry to Stehekin and then have a ~20-mile round trip hike plus bushwhack/scramble up the non-standard west side of Reynolds, or I could do a 57-mile round trip hike from the Bridge Creek trailhead off highway 20.

By early October Reynolds was the last remaining peak on my Bulgers clock-reset list. I was limited to weekends since the school year had just started, and it looked like Saturday was the best weather window. To capitalize on this window, and to finish off my project with a big final trip, I decided to day hike Reynolds from highway 20. It would essentially be hiking/running two marathons and a 10k in a day, with 13,000ft elevation gain and some bushwhacking and scrambling thrown in for good measure. And it looked like snowline was down to 7,000ft, meaning the top half of the route would be snow covered. That sounded like a fun challenge to me.

I left town Friday evening after work, fighting rush hour gridlock to get to the Bridge Creek trailhead near Rainy Pass on Highway 20 by 9:45pm. It was snowing lightly, and I hoped the precipitation would end soon as forecast. I knew the trip the next day would be long, but I wanted to get back to the car before midnight so all my steps on my fitbit would count for the same day. I also wanted to get enough sleep to not be slowed down by sleep deprivation. My compromise was to get 4.5 hours of sleep.

I was asleep by 10pm, and up at 2:30am. Luckily the snow had stopped by then and the sky above was full of stars. I

scarfed down a blueberry muffin, banana, and two pastries I’d bought at the Shell station at exit 208 on the way up, and was starting my hike by 2:45am.

It was a tough call what gear to bring. I wanted to go as light as possible, but also wanted to be prepared for deep snow. In the end I decided against the hiking boots and crampons and just went in my trail runners with microspikes and mini-gaiters in the pack. This would allow me to run sections of the trail more comfortably, though I may have trouble if the top of Reynolds was too snowy. This seemed like an ok risk, since about 50 miles of the trip would be on trail, and only 7 miles would be off trail and snow covered.

I got off to a bad start, going the wrong way on the PCT over a sketchy icy bridge, then coming back to highway 20. I then remembered I should bring some cash in case I needed to bail out to stehekin and take a ferry out, so I returned to the car to get a 20 dollar bill and credit card. Finally by 3am I was moving in the correct direction southbound on the PCT.

Before long I reached the junction with the Stiletto Spur Trail. My plan was to hike over McAlester Pass, and this trail paralleled the PCT but was 0.5 miles shorter. However, I’d read that it wasn’t maintained as much and was less popular. I opted to stick with the PCT to ensure I didn’t get slowed down by taking a wrong turn or crawling over too many logs in the dark.

At fireweed camp I turned onto the McAlester Lake trail and hiked up to McAlester Pass. Snow line started around 5,500ft, but it was only a dusting on the trail and I didn’t need microspikes. The sun finally rose as I was descending from the pass down the Rainbow Creek trail. I had great views of yellow and red foliage with snowcapped mountains in the distance. It looked like Tupshin had gotten a lot of snow on the north face.

When I reached Bench Creek camp a big bear was standing on a fallen log watching me, and I took a few pictures. It eventually got scared, though, and took off into the woods. From the pass at 6,000ft I descended all the way down to 2,200 ft near Stehekin, and it was painful realizing that I would be reclimbing all of that on the return. I then turned off and started ascending the Boulder Creek trail. By 9am the sun came up from behind the mountains and I stopped for my first food break to put on sunscreen.

The trail up Boulder Creek was in good shape, and I ascended back up to snowline around 5,500ft. It was unfortunate having to walk through snow-covered meadows that got my feet soaked and cold, but this was the price I had to pay for the comfort of hiking in trail runners instead of big waterproof boots.

I reached Reynolds Camp around 11am, about 25 miles from the trailhead. From here on the route was less certain. Summitpost describes a third-class route up this side of Reynolds, and I read a report from Blake Herrington on CascadeClimbers from 2007 that it’s possible to go over a pass near here and connect with the standard east side route.

I hiked through the campsite, then bushwhacked through open woods, then dense woods, and eventually popped out in a meadow below Reynolds about 20 minutes later. I could not see any obvious 3^rd class route through the cliffs on the west side of Reynolds, so I aimed for the pass described by Blake. It’s the pass just north of Camels Hump, between the “Chelan” and “CO” on the USFS quad.

There was luckily much less snow than I had feared. It was maybe an inch deep, and only in the shade of some larch trees or on the north sides of slopes. I hiked to the edge of the meadow, then easily hiked through class 2 tree-

covered terrain to the pass. From the pass I traversed at the same height to the north, skirting some cliffs, to join up with the standard east side route up Reynolds.

I could see a lot of burned forest in the valley below, though it looked like nothing was actively on fire or smoking. Hopefully the snow has put out all the fire. The east side route up Reynolds was almost entirely snow-free because it faces southeast. I hiked up scree to the southeast face, then ditched my poles and scrambled  the remaining 3^rd class bit to the summit.

I officially reached the summit at 12:51pm, meaning my Bulger completion time was 1 year 1 month 15 days 20 hours 29 minutes, spanning from August 20^th 2017 (Sherpa Peak) to October 6, 2018. I couldn’t find a register other than a rusty old can on the top, though it was snowy and could have been buried.

I rested for 20 minutes, taking in the view and trying to identify as many mountains as I could around me. Luckily it had been sunny all morning and I didn’t see any bad weather coming towards me. I did still have about 28 miles to go back to the car, so was soon on my way.

I retraced my route, scree surfing down whenever possible, and bushwhacked back to the trail by around 2:30pm. Once I got below snowline I switched into a dry pair of socks and began the long hike/jog back down. The thought crossed my mind to take a detour hike down to the Stehekin Bakery on the way, but that would unfortunately add about 4 miles to my day. It seemed like 57 miles was already plenty far to be hiking in one push, so I reluctantly skipped the bakery.

At the bottom of Boulder Creek I began the long ascent back up Rainbow Creek. I definitely like standard mountains where you go up on the ascent and down on the descent. I guess Reynolds Peak is such a mountain if you just climb it by the standard approach. By this time late in the day my energy level was oscillating with much higher frequency. It seemed like every hour I would be zapped and need a food break, while earlier in the day I had gone about 6 hours (2:45am- 8:45am) between breaks.

By sunset I was back to McAlester Pass, and the snow had melted so the trail was no longer slippery. I stopped at a stream near McAlester Lake to fill up my 7^th liter of water for the day, and continued down the trail to the PCT. Finally, by just after 11pm I reached the car back at Bridge Creek. My feet were in tough shape from blisters, and I was glad to be able to just jump inside and go to sleep.

For the day my GPS officially registered 57 miles and 13,000ft elevation gain for the trip, and my fitbit recorded 111,399 steps. I drove back to Seattle Sunday morning and celebrated with an Indian Buffet lunch with Katie.

Some interesting statistics from my Bulgers project:

Best year: 2018 (78)
Best 1-year period: Oct 7 2017 – Oct 6 2018 (85)
Best month: July 2018 (29)
Best day: July 1, 2018 (6)
Winter ascents: 11 (2 FWAs, 1 SWA)
Solos: 68
50+ mile days: 3
40-49 mile days: 2
30-39 mile days: 4
Packraft-assisted ascents: 11
Mountain-bike assisted ascents: 16
Cumulative Bulger ascents: 149 ( 40 repeats, 7 3-peats, 2 4-peats)

Link to my Bulgers page documenting the ascents for the speed record

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