Sunny FRange love - North Suicide North Ridge, Homicide Northwest Ridge
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Sunny FRange love! 10 Miles/6500ft/8.5 hours on foot
Yesterday's sun created a dilemma for me - stay close to Anchorage and link up some peaks, or head further afield and bag a single, large peak. Well, I've done my share of big peak bushwacking this summer, and I'm getting a bit sick of being soaking wet before even being ON the mountain. Easy choice. Front range, here I come!
I parked at Glen Alps, and was on my bike heading toward the Powerline pass by 8AM. It seems that nature has a cruel sense of humor, 'cause I only made it a few miles before I ran into several bull moose sleeping on the edge of the trail. Bushwack time! Goodbye, dry feet! (they remained moist for the rest of the day).
After passing Ptarmigan Peak and crossing the creek west of Green Lake, I ditched the bike and began hiking up the north ridge/side of Hope Mountain. This ridge was fairly easygoing, with a few mossy 3rd class cruxes, made more difficult by previous days of saturating rain. The sun broke out, but was again hidden by passing clouds as I reached the summit of Hope.
Sun coming out! Ptarmigan peak on left, Avalanche mtn on right.
Looking down the ridge. Ptarmigan is off screen to left, Wedge is middle, and Powerline Pass/Avalanche on the right
Traveling along the ridge to South Powerline. Rabbit lake with Suicide Peaks in the clouds
The clouds hung around as a traveled east to South Powerline peak. They finally dissipated soon after, giving me a good view of my next goal - North Suicide north ridge.
Homicide peak on the left, North Suicide center right, and South Powerline right
North ridge to North Suicide
The ridge descended and went by easily for a while, until finally forcing me into a choke point with 4th class exposure and rock. I scrambled past, thankful that the sun was out and beginning to dry the terrain.
4th class choke point!
Testing holds on 4th class choke point
Testing holds on 4th class choke point
Looking back at the exposed choke
It stayed flat and 4th classy for a while - sometimes coming to choke points and sometimes forcing me into mossy-ness to the east side. The moss was fairly unpleasant - it was still wet and quite suspect about letting go at any given moment. UGH!
More 4th classiness with moss
Exposed
Mossy
When the going got steep again, the exposure and rock once again backed off to 3rd class and I made the summit without incident.
Summit to the left, Rabbit Lake below on the middle right. Exposure had eased off a good bit.
Summit
Summit. Notice the notch in Homicide peak on the right. I'm a few hours from traversing that notch!
Summit
I decided to avoid the mossy traverse back on the north ridge by dropping down to Rabbit Lake via one of the more traveled routes on this mountain. Additionally, I wanted to time this go around vs the north ridge traverse (front range 5000er linkup beta!)
Heading down North Suicide the pedestrian way ;)
Scree sure is nice for descending!
I found some snow! North Suicide North Ridge above to my right.
What a day!!
Scrambling back to the summit of South Powerline Peak, I saw my final goal - Homicide Peak Northwest ridge!
The initial NW ridge of Homicide. You will eventually be forced into a mossy manky gully.
This NW ridge proved mild at first - there is an obvious gully with a few steep 4th classy overhangs (kind of like a mini, mossy version of Chickenshit gully on Bashful). The next part gets interesting though...
Once you reach the top of this "false summit", you are greeted with a view of the true summit and the nasty notch you have to traverse to get there. The notch options include a downclimb on the knife edge of the ridgecrest, or dropping south and piecing together some mossy steps/chutes. Either one is 4th class, but the moss is more comforting because you'll only MAYBE fall all the way down the mountain ;) I chose moss!
Summit ahead, with nasty notch inbetween. This is me trying the ridgecrest and deciding against it.
Past the notch, looking back and pointing out where I descended.
Past the notch, looking back and pointing out where I descended.
OK fine, one more photo of the notch...
After you pass this notch, it is a fairly uneventful scramble to the summit of Homicide. I spent a few minutes up here, then went back down the NW ridge. As I reached the Powerline pass, it was an easy walk back on the trail to my stashed bike.
Homicide peak as seen from the return trip over Powerline Pass.
Overall - totally the right idea to hit up the front range!! The wetness was minimal, and the traverses were fun. If you plan to ascend either Homicide or North Suicide by their north ridges, be prepared for exposure and some decision making. I'd suggest extra caution on either one after recent rain - there's plenty of mossy rock, and moss tends to slide off. Watch out, and have fun!
Total Time - Just about 9.5 hours. 46 minutes biking in, 7:59:37 hiking, 46 mins biking out. Civic DX ready to roll! I left my house at 5:30 and was riding around Eklutna by 6:20. There was a lot of bear crap on the trail, so I did some extra "hey bear!" in addition to my two bearbells. After 10 miles, it was time to ditch the bike - but what was this? There were already some people here! A group of two declared their intention to climb Bold, and there was a group of three trying Bashful! Riding around the lake Trusty 9:ZERO:7 Whiteout with Bashful above! The two were still busy with gear, so I started walking with the trio, glad to have some company for what I had anticipated to be a very spooky (bear-ie) walk to Stiver's. Once we arrived, I bade farewell to the group and went on ahead. My Bashful Buds :) Things went great until I took a very ill-advised wrong turn, and ended up missing the alder tunnel and bushwacking through s
Skybuster/Ice Cream Cone seen from Mt. Significant, January 2019. LONG lens! I remember the first time I saw it. Eastbound on the Glenn, just before passing Kings Mountain and Chickaloon, on a clear, flat section of road, I happened to glance south, and there it was, standing tall in the distance. I couldn't take my eyes off, and couldn't help but wonder: did that insane tower of rock have a name, and what would it be like to stand on its incredible, precipitous summit? Since I wasn't driving, I easily answered the first question with Google. That inspirational behemoth was named Skybuster. Answering the second question, however, would have to wait. Several years and lots of beta gathering later, it was time to try. Since the peak is so remote, it seemed a good idea to make this our first fly in approach. With excitement and some apprehension, we loaded up at Merrill field and flew (choppered!) out. WOCKA WOCKA WOCKA Sitting in the chopper at Merrill field. Fue
11.9Mi/6:10:41/3,724ft/Plus one 400lb boulder UPDATED 2020 - See bottom of page I woke up this morning not knowing that I was going to go scrambling, much less on Hidden Peak, much less try to connect the ridge between Hidden Peak/The Ramp. Interesting how plans for the day evolve, eh? Like 80% of my days off this summer/fall, the forecast called for rain showers. That means I wake up, make coffee, go back and forth from the computer to the window, and wait for the sky to reveal itself. It didn't look so bad! OK, I'm used to seeing this by now. Since it didn't look SO bad, meaning that it still looked SORT of bad, I decided to stay close to home and climb a peak that had so far slipped underneath the radar - Hidden Peak. Hidden Peak is connected to O'Malley via a ridgeline, and many a time at the O'Malley summit I have entertained the thought of continuing toward Hidden. But every time, it just looked too dang far to be bothered. Hmmph
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