2 Top 100 WA Mountains In 1 Day

There is a list for people who are serious about climbing WA’s mountain peaks. Not just a list, but the list. The Washington Bulger List. It basically includes the highest 100 mountains in the state. It does take into factor some other measurements such as prominence (how high the peak rises from a ridge that connects to another peak) in the selection, so it’s not exactly the highest 100 points, but the list is described with: “Any way you look at it, this is a very difficult list to complete. Many of these peaks require serious mountaineering skill, including difficult rock-climbing ability.” Even though mountaineering has been a thing for a while, it wasn’t until 1980 when someone had completed all 100.

I heard from a friend that he was going to climb two of these mountains - in one day, and that I was invited! This friend, Aaron, a fellow mountainscape photographer, is purely a mountain peak hiking beast. Of course I had to join!

We had the goal of capturing photos of the process, but if I were honest I’d have to say that for me the photos almost came secondary to the technical challenge and keeping pace. It has been 8 months now, but I clearly remember finishing the hike and feeling that it was the perfect challenge for me at the time. Yes, this all happened last July, I am just super slow to get this post up.

Do you enjoy sleeping in your car? I may answer yes because it would mean that I have a sunrise hike planned and is just part of the process. BUT, when you have the option to hike into a place like this, camp and wake up for sunrise with a hot coffee it’s a much more beautiful experience! (Okay, I admit, I forgot the coffee.)

So that’s what we did. With roughly a midnight start, we trotted up the trail 6 miles, set a simple camp (2 alpine bivys and my little trekking pole tent), and slept for a couple hours. When we got up we weren’t the only ones out to watch the sunrise and smell our breakfast. A 5-point buck in velvet came right on over to join us. After taking photos and videos of the buck for a while, I eventually had to reclaim my tent spot or he would have been in my tent trying to eat my food.

Looking back after taking some elevation in the upper basin

Still following the water to it’s source. Visible 22°solar halo around the rising sun.

Near the saddle looking back on the snow field we just walked up

Here’s some video footage up until this point

This is were we decided to work our way around Dumbell Mnt to tackle Greenwood first, which was the further of the two.

Aaron taking lead on the improbable ledge across to Greenwood

Left: Aaron scrambling on the rocks to get around some seasonal snow that had yet to melt. Right: SE view across to Mount Fernow and Seven Fingered Jack and view down to Big Creek 1500 feet below.

The route for us to get to Greenwood Mountain involved traversing this narrow improbable ledge across an exposed cliff. There is a very steep falloff that decends 1500 feet to the lake below. The catwalk-like ledge itself wasn’t too difficult, knowing there is zero room for error is the scary part. There was a patch of soft snow covering the end of the ledge which we improvised around.

Looking back on the ledge after crossing. Trevin pictured top right.

After the challenge of making it across the ledge, the rest of the trek to the top of Greenwood was cake and full of eye candy. That crystal blue pond of snowmelt sitting on top of the snow was the perfect reward for making it this far. I scurried around a bit to get some different angles captured. Which also made me get a little behind my friends.

In order to get up this mountain, then the next one, hike back to our campsite, back to our cars, and drive home - all within the remaining day - we didn’t have much time to hang around.

I eventually bagged up my camera, changed my boots (literally), and focused on making ground to also bag the peak.

360 view from Greenwood Mountain summit.

Some more video footage up to this point

Some mobile phone shots. Left: Trevin on the ledge. Center: Crossing a snow field to get to our Dumbell summit route. Right: Some class 3/4 scrambling below the summit

To access our second mountain peak we retraced our route back across the ledge and around to the W/SW side of Dumbell Mountain which involved a little more technical rock scrambling to get to the top. My camera didn’t come out during this stretch as we were just trying to make good time.

Last part of the video footage

Now, if this hike was interesting to you at all, you definitely want to check out Aaron’s trip report and photos over at nwhikers.net. As well as his instagram for more mountainscape photos. He got some great photos (incuding some of me), and his written accounts of the day are more accurate and detailed than mine.

Left: Myself down-climbing from Dumbell summit (photo by Aaron Wilson). Center: Me and my get up (photo by Trevin). Right: Myself descending some steep snow (photo by Aaron Wilson)

As cool as the photo of me on the steep snow may look, what would have been even cooler was if we got a photo of Trevin glissading down that steep section like a boss. I actually chickened out and went down this part slowly on all fours.

OutdoorRoss James WalletteMarch 9, 2021adventure, nature, mpe, hiking, outdoor, PNWComment