Distance: 29.2 mi. (~10 on bikes)
Elevation Gain: 7800 ft.
I’ve been working on the 100 Peaks in Mount Rainier National Park for several years now, and although I’m able to do most of the peaks on my own, I needed a partner for the rope climb to the top of Sluiskin Chief. So when my friend Abby said she was free mid-week, I managed to convince her to attempt this little-known peak with me. As a mountain biker and trad climber, she was down for this multi-sport adventure.
We started by driving to the Carbon River Ranger Station to get walk-up camping permits. Because of the popular Northern Loop Trail our preferred campsite at Yellowstone Cliffs was already filled up. We decided to camp at Lake James instead, which would require some extra mileage on our summit day but we hoped that the lake would make for a pretty campsite. Then we drove to the Carbon River park entrance. The road to Ipsut Creek Campground has been closed for some time so we mountain biked the 5 mi gravel road, which was a gradual and unrelenting uphill climb. There were just a couple areas where we had to walk our bikes because of washouts.
We stashed our bikes at the campground and finally began our hike in earnest around 11 AM. The hike was mostly flat until the crossing over Carbon River, and then began a steady moderate grade uphill. We met a couple people on the climb who warned us about a mama bear and cub above who were practically on the trail. Sure enough, as we traversed below Yellowstone Cliffs we did several switchbacks along a blueberry-filled meadow with a mama bear and baby that were very uninterested in us, no matter how much noise we made. We managed to pass them without event and then continued past the cliffs. On the east side of the cliffs we saw another set of bears who were farther off trail and yet another solo male who was walking along the trail but got scared into some bushes when we approached. So if you are hiking around here this time of year, you will want to proceed with caution.
We hadn’t realized just how far we needed to descend from Windy Gap to camp at Lake James, but we held out hope that we could take a dip in the lake when we arrived. After a seemingly endless downclimb we reached the campsite but didn’t see a lake anywhere. We backtracked to collect water at a small stream and finally noticed the side trail to the lake. However, the edge of the lake was muddy and overgrown with marshy grass and the water was freezing cold, so the best we could do was wash up briefly in the outlet. So much for our glamorous alpine lake experience. After an uneventful night at the campsite (which had a bear pole for food storage), we began our climb back up to Windy Gap at 6:45 AM.
We stashed our overnight gear in some bushes at Windy Gap and began our off-trail descent into the valley just south of the trail. We took a totally wacky route and ended up bushwhacking through steep trees, but once we reached the creek bed at the bottom of the valley the route was more open. We began climbing directly across from where we had entered the creek bed, but ended up doing some steep side hilling below a short cliff. We traversed into a different dry stream bed and began climbing toward the scree slope above. It began to dawn on us that we should have started our day earlier because it was super hot in the sun. The scree was difficult to ascend and slow going. At one point we scrambled up some solid rock along the route, but otherwise remained on the scree. We reached the ridge between Sluiskin Mountain and Sluiskin Mountain West at 10:30 AM.
We turned left (east) on our approach of Sluiskin Mountain until we curled around to the scramble route on the north ridge of the summit. Although we were pretty sure that we were at the base of the route, it looked too steep from where we were for a scramble route. We roped up and Abby began the climb, but quickly encountered some challenging climbing moves and didn’t trust the crappy volcanic rock. We hemmed and hawed for a bit about whether to push on, but realized that we were running out of time if we wanted to make it out before dark. After a lot of deliberation, we decided to turn around.
As difficult as the climb had been up the scree slope, it was much more challenging to go down. We moved slowly and had several foot slips and rockfalls but managed not to get injured. We saw a nice pack trail to follow from the creek bed and began climbing that after eating and filtering water. The pack trail took us a much better way through the trees and we were chatting happily when we suddenly heard a crash to our left and a tree began shaking and groaning wildly. We froze in our tracks and looked toward the tree until we saw the bear whom we had scared up there. We backed away slowly while it made weird huffing sounds and then we bashed through some bushes until we regained the ridge, where we quickly found the trail. We returned to our gear stash, repacked, and retraced our steps past Yellowstone Cliffs. We didn’t see any more bears for the rest of the day, although numerous hikers asked us about them.
The descent toward Ipsut Creek Campground was punishing after an already long day. We got more sad and hobbly by the minute, but finally made it down to the Carbon River crossing. The river was notably more swift on our return but the bridges were solid. We made it back to our bikes and hopped on for the ride back to our car. Thanks to that unrelenting climb on the way in, we had an effortless roll back to the car. We still had to walk a couple sections, but overall had a very enjoyable ride as the setting sun splashed light through the trees. We agreed – it was our favorite part of the trip!
I’d like to come back to climb both Sluiskin Mountain and Sluiskin Mountain West, but I’d do whatever I could to camp at Yellowstone Cliffs and start earlier on the ascent day. We did confirm through photos that we were at the correct ascent route for climbing to the summit. It’s just a sketchy scramble and there’s no way around it!
(Download the free Gaia GPS app on your phone to view tracks and then get a Gaia GPS membership if you want offline access. Discount below!)
Gear Used:
- ATC device
- Approach shoes (Vanessa)
- Backpacking tent
- GPS
- Harness
- Helmet
- Hiking boots (Abby)
- Locking carabiners
- Mountain bike
- 30 m half-rope
- Sleeping pad
- Summer sleeping bag
- Stove
- Trad gear – various nuts and slings
- Trekking poles
- Water drops/filter
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