July 5 – 8, 2007
Jerry and Art Climb Bonanza
We drove from Seattle to Chelan early to catch the boat at Fields Point and then rode the bus to Holden. We hid clean clothes in the brush and started walking the trail to Holden lake It was very hot in Holden (95 degrees!) and I was exhausted by the time we got to the lake. There were bad bugs so I didn’t stop to eat anything there and as a consequence I “bonked” on the hill up to the pass. It took us 7 hours to get to camp.
The next morning we climbed Martin. (I think Art had doubts about my ability to get up Bonanza that day.) It was a complicated route on loose rock. I got scraped on the shin when a block broke loose. Great views, though.
On the morning of Saturday, July 7 we left camp at 5:00 and walked on snow up to the cliff band below the glacier. We climbed through the cliffs and walked across the glacier meeting up with two climbers just below the snow tongue. The snow tonuge was steep and had a cravasse at the bottom so we protected it. Then we climbed 600 feet on steep loose rock to the summit.
We did five or six rappels to get down off the rock and then walked down the snow tongue (using pickets again) and across the glacier. I had forgotten how steep the slope was above the cliffs. We rigged a rappel and slid down over wet slimey rock. I faced in to get down the snow below and then slid all over the place walking down the snow to get back to camp.
We got up the next morning a left camp at 7:00 to get to Holden by lunch. We discovered that there are showers available to hikers in the village, now. We ate salad and fruit and then took a long slow ride on a crowded boat. We stopped in Wenatchee for Tacos and were back in Seattle by 9:00.
All in all a good weekend and a couple of big mountains.