Hard Earned Rewards - Vesper Peak, 6.30.19
There are mountains and then there are mountain climber’s mountains. Vesper Peak has all the ingredients to qualify for the latter. Long miles, lots of elevation gain, rough trail, numerous varied sections all lead to a spectacular summit with tremendous views in every direction.
I had been on the summit twice before but that was 26 years ago when Bridgit and I were young and strong. I wasn’t sure I would ever recapture the stamina and strength to attempt this again but all the work I’ve done this year led me to call up Neighbor Greg and head out for some adventure. And that’s what we did.
Vesper Peak is on the opposite side of the Mountain Loop Highway from Mt. Dickerman which I had climbed earlier in the week. The trail starts out in cool old growth forest and we crossed four streams in that first section.
This was about as good as the trail got
After about a mile we began to climb in earnest, first switchbacking up through an avalanche fan full of tall ferns and brush and then rounding a corner into Wirtz Basin.
Coming into Wirtz Basin. We are headed for the lowest point at the head of the basin
Once in Wirtz Basin the trail goes pretty much straight up steeply through boulders and rock scree to what appears to be a dead end cirque.
Looking back down Wirtz Basin. You can see the road in the center of the photo we came in on. A long way and we hadn’t even gone halfway! Mt Dickerman can be seen across the way.
Just when it seems that there is nowhere else to go, Headlee Pass appears as a narrow defile off to the north side of the cirque.
Headlee Pass. As steep as it looks
Luckily, the super steep route up through Headlee Pass is fairly short. When we reached the pass we were greeted with the first views of our objective - Vesper Peak.
Vesper Peak from just beyond Headlee Pass. Lake Elan is around the corner to the right
Once we popped through the narrow pass we had to cross a long boulder field which led to a lovely creek flowing out of Lake Elan. Lake Elan sits in a rugged rock basin between Vesper Peak and Sperry Peak. Here we slathered up with more sunscreen, refilled our water bottles and got out our sunglasses for the thousand foot climb straight up the snow covered south face of Vesper. While mostly solid snow, we found several rocky spots on the face to break the monotony of pole, step, step, pole, repeat. When we did this back in September of ’93 there was no snow on the face and the terrain was all gigantic granite slabs.
Greg on the slabs.
At 12:30PM we finally made it to the summit and it felt sooo great to have re-conquered this peak.
Final summit block
The views of course were sensational. I won’t bore you with the names of all the peaks we could see, but suffice to say it was an incredible sight to behold. At the summit the north face drops off as a sheer cliff down to beautiful Copper Lake.
Copper Lake below Three Fingers Mountain and Whitehorse Mountain
When I got to the top and got my first look down the north face, much to my surprise, five climbers were working their way up the face.
Climber on the north face above Copper Lake and Big Four Mountain
Obligatory selfie
Copper Lake. No trails go to this lovely lake.
We stayed on the summit for about forty minutes but we knew we had a long, arduous descent ahead of us. We had both brought our ice axes and I suggested a long glissade back down to Lake Elan, but Greg only had shorts and was concerned about testiculus frostbitus so we ended up plunge stepping our way back down the snow face. It was just as well because there were several great photos that needed to be taken along the way.
Greg on the descent. Headlee Pass can be seen in the lower right of the photo.
Sperry Peak and Lake Elan
The boulder field on the way back to Headlee Pass
Looking back down the trail from Headlee Pass
In recent years I have had problems with my legs cramping up during hikes so I was extremely concerned on the descent back to the trailhead. I guess the work I’ve done is paying off big dividends because I made it back to the car with no issues and that gave me a huge sense of accomplishment. Now I am totally looking forward to my first backpack trip since 2015 when Greg Dilley, Cindy and I head down to the Mt St Helens Volcanic National Monument for a three day backpack into the Mt Margaret Backcountry. I love backpacking.
Bridgit and I at Lake Elan in 1993