Argyros, First Ascent

Argyros (8,149ft), First Ascent

Route – Silver Sliver (1000ft, steep snow and snice)

April 3-5, 2026

44 miles boating, 4 miles biking dragging boat, 18 miles hiking/climbing

Eric Gilbertson and Nick Roy

There still possibly exist unclimbed peaks in the remote corners of Washington, and one of them happened to be in the Chilliwacks of the North Cascades. The peak is officially unnamed, and I first happened upon it in February 2024 during one of my winter bulgers trips. I’d taken a full day to row my boat up Ross Lake with Josh Celli (the motor didn’t start), then another full day to bushwhack up to Silver Lake. As I was crossing the frozen lake in the dark en route to Mount Custer, I spied an intriguing couloir coming down the north face of the unnamed peak just south of Silver Lake. The couloir was about 1000ft tall, straight as an arrow, deep, and narrow. It looked really fun to climb, so I put it on my list for a return trip.

I later learned from John Roper that it’s named the Silver Sliver. It’s really only visible if you are on Rahm or Devil’s Tongue looking south, or walking across a frozen Silver Lake in the winter or spring. These are all pretty remote places, so it probably doesn’t get seen by too many people. I was also working on a project to determine an updated list of the WA Top 100 peaks using professional surveying equipment and LiDAR. As part of this work, I discovered that the peak was actually within error bounds of inclusion on the WA Top 100 list based on the quad contours. The USGS quad had the peak at an elevation 8320ft – 8360ft, with prominence 360ft – 400ft. If it were on the upper edge of elevation and prominence, it would count as a Top 100 peak.

In summer 2024 I planned to return and survey the peak, but before I got to it the USGS published LiDAR data for that area of the north cascades. I analyzed the point cloud data and found the peak is actually only 8,149ft, with prominence 150ft. LiDAR could be off by a few feet in elevation or prominence, but nowhere near enough for it to meet the 400ft cutoff for inclusion. It turned out the quad made the biggest error I’ve ever heard of for a peak elevation (off by over 160ft!). The only contenders for high errors like that were for East Fury and Fortress, where the quads were off by ~50ft and ~80ft respectively.

With the survey no longer necessary I pushed the peak lower on my priority list. By March 2026 it came back on my radar. Jason Hummel was looking to ski International Glacier up near Silver Lake as part of his project to ski all the ~300 glaciers in Washington. With all the effort required to get in there, I decided it would be nice to add on an additional objective, so we planned to climb the unnamed peak after International Glacier.

I like to climb peaks in the North Cascades completely legally, meaning no sneaking in from Canada. My favorite approach to the Chilliwacks area is to boat up Ross Lake and bushwhack up Perry Creek or Silver Creek. I’ve mostly done this in the winter climbing all the winter bulgers in the Chilliwacks. My strategy that I’ve perfected over the years with 10 trips of the zodiac on Ross Lake is generally park at the Ross Dam trailhead and triple carry my zodiac boat and outboard motor to Frontage Road. Then I deploy retractable wheels and drag it to Ross Lake. Then I motor up the lake to the trailhead.

For motor choice I’ve traditionally used my 5hp propane outboard in the winter, but it’s not super reliable. It seems like random new issues always come up that are impossible to fix in the field. I’ve ended up rowing the length of Ross lake three times when the motor wouldn’t work. I also bought a cheap 4hp 4-stroke used gas outboard on craigs list, and that seems like it is easier to debug. It needs to be 4-stroke to meet the strict environmental regulations on Ross Lake. I then switched out the carburetor with a new $30 part that increased it to an 8hp motor so it would go a little faster but not be any heavier.

I decided to gain more confidence with the gas outboard, and took it out for a few multi-hour trips on Lake Samammish for practice identifying potential failure modes and solutions. I measured that it gets about 12 miles per gallon fully loaded and travels at about 5.5mph. The journey up Ross lake to Silver Creek is 36-44 miles, depending on if Diablo Lake is used at the start, so that would be about 3-4 gallons. I have a 5 gallon external fuel tank, so that would work fine with some safety factor. By March I was confident enough to give it a try on Ross Lake.

In mid March of this year a rock slide blocked highway 20 before the Ross Dam trailhead, and it was gated at Colonial Creek campground at mile 130. This complicated the approach, but I had an alternative. I’d previously done a trip up to climb Hard Mox in October where I boated up Diablo Lake, dragged my boat up Frontage Road to Ross Lake, then boated up Ross Lake to the trailhead. That’s not a great option in winter if Frontage Road is iced over, but it works well outside of winter. To ease the burden of dragging the boat up the road, Jason brought his ebike.

There was just enough room in the zodiac to lay the ebike on top of all our gear. We had high hopes of towing the boat up the road, but unfortunately with only back wheels on the boat, when we tried to pull it with the bike the bow of the boat dragged on the ground. So instead Jason ferried loads up while I manually dragged the boat up.

On that trip we ended up not being able to ski International Glacier because our planned entrance, Almost Canada Col, had melted out too much in the decades since the quads were made. There is now a ~100ft cliff with cornices on top guarding the entrance, so we decided to bail. We still tried to climb the unnamed peak, though. On the morning of our last day we skinned over to the base of the Silver Sliver, then strapped skis to our backs and started kicking steps up.

After we got a few hundred feet up we encountered ice that spanned width of the couloir. We just had a mountaineering ax and whippet each, and no rope or screws or rock gear to protect the climb. So we unfortunately had to bail on that too and go home empty handed of both objectives.

I wanted to return soon, though, while I had the approach dialed and I knew the conditions on the ground. During the next week I bought a set of kayak wheels on amazon and figure out how to mount them on the bow of my zodiac. I practiced towing it around a parking lot and this would definitely allow a bike to tow the boat up Frontage road.

Two weeks later another weather window lined up with a long weekend for me. Nick was interested in joining this time, and he has an ebike for the approach. Highway 20 was still gated at mile 130, so we had to use the same approach strategy as before.

Thursday evening we drove up to Colonial Creek campground, but conditions had changed a bit. Now there was a chain blocking the entrance to the put-in north of the road. The washout south of the main road was cleared, but the standard boat launch ramp was filled with debris and the water too shallow to launch. We were able to carry the gear past the chain gate on the north, though. This time we decided to set up the boat inside the wooden launching building with the docks, now that the lake level was high enough that it was in the water.

We inflated the boat, got it set up, then slept in the truck. Friday morning we pushed off at sunrise. It was actually pretty cramped in the boat with the bike on top of the gear, so I couldn’t row at the beginning. But Nick took one oar and paddled like a canoe to get us out to deeper water. Then I started up the motor. It started on the first pull, as expected. This was much nicer than the propane motor, which always takes at least 10 pulls.

Luckily all the flotsam from two weeks ago had been cleared and we cruised through the water fence, then rounded the corner right up the gorge. Another boat was travelling pretty quickly up and down the lake, and I think they were ferrying Ross Dam workers in. They slowed down and waved to us, and it probably looked a little unusual to see us with a bike on the boat.

We soon reached Frontage Road after 45 minutes and quickly got the boat on shore. I mounted the bow wheels and we tied a rope from the bow to the seat post of the bike. The road was pretty steep, though, and the back wheel of the bike kept slipping. When I pushed from the back of the boat that helped, and we made good progress. At one steep spot Nick decided to ferry the packs up to decrease the boat weight. So I dragged the boat up for a while.

Higher up when the terrain leveled we tried a different strategy where we tied the rope down near the axle of the bike rear wheel instead of the seat post. Additionally Nick had a duffle bag on his back to add weight. That helped prevent the rear wheel from spinning, and we made much faster progress. For the rest of the way Nick pulled the boat with the bike and I ran behind it. At the crest of the hill Nick shuttled gear down and I dragged the boat down, since the bike wouldn’t help with towing down hill.

Overall this method was much funner and required less effort than triple carrying the gear down the trail from the Ross Dam trailhead. About 2.5 hours after setting off we had the gear and the boat at the edge of Ross Lake. Nick hid the bike and the bow wheels in the woods and we pushed off. A south wind helped as I rowed out, then started the engine up again on the first pull. We cruised through the water fence and started making fast progress.

This day the lake water level was 1566ft, about 6ft higher than 2 weeks ago. The height is very important for stumps, which are problematic in the winter and spring. At 1560ft there are a few locations where stumps stick up a few inches above the water even far out into the lake. That is treacherous for an inflatable boat. But at 1566ft that is not a problem. In fact, that is high enough I can cut the corner on Cougar Island and save a few minutes.

We cut around the west side of Cougar Island, then up past Roland Point, Pumpkin Mtn, Rainbow Point, and Ten Mile Island. The wind was a nice tail wind the whole time, and we didn’t get sprayed at all by the waves. We each wore dry suits just in case, though. After 3 hours 15 minutes we reached Silver Creek at 12:30pm. The north end of Ross Lake has the most problematic stumps, and I usually take out in the deepest water possible on the south end of the alluvial fan coming out of Silver Creek. But with the water higher now I cruised to as close as possible to the campsite. Within 20ft of shore the stumps got treacherous, and I cut the motor and paddled the rest of the way. I deployed the wheels to protect the motor, then once we grounded I jumped out into the water and pulled the boat farther in. We then dragged it about 30ft on the shore, just in case the water level got raised a lot. We then tied it to a stump.

We took a break at the picnic table at the campsite, and stashed some food in the bear box for the journey out. By 1pm we were starting the hiking portion of the trip. There exists an old abandoned trail on the north end of silver creek, but crossing the creek to access it can sometimes be tricky. Luckily last trip we found a good logjam at the outflow, and we used that again this time for an easy crossing. On the other side we did a short stretch of bushwhacking along the shore of the creek before picking up the old trail after a few hundred feet.

Jason Hummel did a bit of history research and found out the trail was created in 1913 to access a galena prospecting site by L. Darow. In 1929 H. P. Davis relocated the prospecting site to a mine for molybdenum, and built a cabin, the remains of which are still there. The cabin was used until at least 1967 for prospectors, but sometime after that was abandoned.

The trail is still generally easy to follow, though there are occasional blowdowns to work around. I’ve cleared a few of these, since I’ve made a bunch of trips up there and it’s a lot nicer when the trail is cleared.

We made it to the remains of the cabin by 3pm, then continued on deer trails past there. Note: the cabin is collapsed and does not offer any shelter. At about 3000ft we reached snow line, and switched out to our mountaineering boots and tied our approach shoes to a tree in a bag. On this trip we decided to use snowshoes instead of skis since much of the approach in upper Silver Creek is currently in icy partially-melted snow that is not great for skiing. Plus, we didn’t want to be as concerned with timing snow conditions perfectly for the approach or exit. Snowshoes are much less conditions-dependent and would allow us to prioritize the summit over the skiing.

The forest was generally very open after that, and we even occasionally found my old boot and ski tracks from the previous trip. That made navigation easier. By 6pm we reached the base of the Silver Lake headwall at the edge of the trees and stopped for the evening. We decided the most efficient approach would be to go fast and light the next morning from there to the summit and back to avoid carrying the overnight gear up the steep headwall. We set up the mega mid tent, filled up water in the running stream, and were soon asleep.

Saturday we knew it would be hot and sunny in the afternoon, so we wanted to get back down the steep south face of the headwall approach before loose wet slides started becoming a concern. But we wanted to climb the peak in the daylight for navigation. So we timed it so we would reach the base around sunrise. We left camp at 3:30am, and made fast time in snowshoes up the icy crust on top of the snow. We crossed silver creek to the north side, then at 4400ft cut right up a big gully. We stayed on the climbers left side in the trees following my earlier route.

The trees were nice and open, and we soon reached the head of that gully system, then cut left to pass through a weakness in the cliff band. It helped that this was my fourth time in there, so I was very familiary with navigation. I’ve only been there in winter and spring, though (Jan, Feb, March, April), so it’s possible my route is not good in the summer when it melts out.

By 6:30am we reached Silver Lake and were treated to an amazing undercast over Ross Lake below. We topped off water bottles at the flowing outlet, then walked across the frozen lake to the base of the route. As the snow steepened we ditched the snowshoes and put on crampons and ascent plates. We took turns kicking our way up the steep face, which alternated between deep powder and thin windslab. The ascent plates were critical, and we only sunk in to our shins instead of to our waists as we might have in crampons.

At about 7200ft we encountered the icy section I’d bailed at last time. But now we each had two technical tools, and we’d brought a rope and light rock and ice rack. So we were prepared. But the icy section looked shorter than the last time, and we felt confident enough soloing up it with the technical tools. We kept the ascent plates on to avoid transitioning, which would take time. The ascent plates are designed so the crampon front points stick out, so it’s still possible to climb ice with them.

I delicately climbed up through the 20 ft stretch, then encountered more snow above. That turned out to be the only icy section in the gully, though that was tough to predict in advance and I’m sure it changes day to day based on the weather and snow accumulation. We continued taking turns in the lead kicking steps, and soon crested the top at 7800ft. Luckily there was no cornice on top, as I had observed 2 weeks earlier.

I think the wind behavior is a bit unusual in that area. On the way up the couloir a few gendarmes on the side have cornices pointing NW, and on the top of the couloir the cliff facing SE has cornices. So the wind swirls around some weird ways there, but luckily the top was clear.

Interestingly, at the top of the couloir is a large plateau with a gentle slope up to the summit. The whole peak kind of reminds me of Devils Tower, with a flattish section on top and cliffs all the way around. Maybe that’s one reason it hadn’t been climbed before, the cliffs surrounding it making it kind of tricky to get up.

By 10am we crested the highest point on the south edge. We were treated to great views of the massive East face of Ag, and a neat cirque below with Tombstone on the south end. There were interesting snow flutes coming down from Rambling Ridge, and some loose wet sluffs were already starting in the sun. I think there might be a 4th class rock route up the SW ridge of Argyros, but it was hard to tell for sure.

I dug out a few feet of snow from the summit to get to rock, then placed a Jake Robinson summit register there under a cairn. The peak is officially unnamed, but we unofficially called it Argyros, which fit the Silver theme of the area (Argyros is the Greek word for silver, and can be pronounced AR-HEER-OS). Other silver-themed names in the area are Silver Lake, Silver Sliver, and Ag (Silver on the periodic table). I think a rule of thumb for an unnamed peak is the first ascent team can give it an unofficial name, though that rule isn’t always followed in Washington. For instance, Fred Beckey named Katsuk peak even though he hadn’t climbed it and it was named Mt Holyoke by the first ascent team, Chris and John Roper.

We soon headed back down, this time taking off the ascent plates. The Silver Sliver conditions were tame enough that we felt fine downclimbing without doing any rappels. I really wished I’d brought my skis then, since it would have been a fun descent all the way from the summit down the couloir, except for the 20ft icy section near the bottom. But the skis would not have been good on the approach, and may have decreased chance of success to reach the summit.

We made it back down to the lake by noon, then postholed back down the headwall in increasingly slushy conditions. By 2pm we were back to camp, right on schedule and luckily not any later since the sun was starting to knock down some loose wet slides from Devils Tongue. We soon packed up and headed back out. The deproach went quick since we could just follow our up tracks most of the way. We managed to find our stashed approach shoes, then followed deer trails from there back to the cabin, and the old mining trail back to Ross Lake.

By 6pm we were back at the lake and set up camp at the regular Silver Creek campsite. It felt luxurious having a picnic table, and amazingly everything had gone almost exactly according to plan and schedule. That wasn’t really by chance, though, since I had spent three previous trips getting the approach completely figured out and dialed, and one of those trips scouting out the exact conditions of the climb.

Interetingly, at sunset I noticed a yellow light across the lake that looked like a headlight, and then I saw a red light, like a vehicle turning around. It was about where the Hozomeen campground was located. This was interesting because access to Hozomeen Campground from Canada has been closed for years. The Silver Skagit Road from Canada to Ross Lake got washed out in 2021 and seems like since then it’s only ever been briefly repaired before getting washed out again. North Cascades National Park says access to Hozomeen Campground from the Silver Skagit road is prohibited by vehicle or by foot. Perhaps someone with a hardcore jeep managed to get through the washouts though.

We went to bed early, and were up at sunrise the next morning. There was a layer of frost on the boat, so it was still chilly, but it was forecast to get very warm during the day. We rowed out into the lake, then once clear of the stumps I got the motor running on the second pull and we were off by 6:30am. There was essentially zero wind, which is unheard of on Ross Lake in my experience. It made for very pleasant boating. We cruised down the lake with great views of Jack Mountain and Ruby Mountain. As we approached Roland Point I saw another boat in the distance, and I suspect it was some of the resort workers. They don’t officially open the resort until June 11 this year, but they must stick around for maintenance in the winter and spring.

We soon cut the corner on Cougar Island, made it through the water fence, and reached the shore. Nick then got out to retrieve the bike and I started unpacking and mounted the bow wheels. We were able to use the bike to tow the boat up to the first crest at the trail intersection, then I dragged it down to the road intersection. We then had some fun with Nick towing me while I was in the boat. At the final hill crest I dragged the boat down while Nick ferried gear down back to Diablo Lake. We then put in with the bike laying on top, and motored back to Colonial Creek by 1pm. It was kind of crowded, being a nice sunny weekend day at the road closure point. We were soon packed up and headed back home.

[Note: WA mountaineering historians we consulted were not aware of any previous documented ascents of this peak.]

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