Slippery Slab Tower, Thunder Mountain, Nimbus Mountain, Thor Peak, Thors Toys, and Dog Gone Peak

Date: 2006/09/30 to 2006/10/02
Trip type: basic rock climb/scramble
USGS quads: Scenic, Stevens Pass

Carla and I parked on a spur road off of road 6095 and hiked up the Tunnel Creek trail (#1601). At the intersection at Hope Lake we turned right on to the PCT. As we followed the PCT through meadows on the south slopes of The Hydrant and K9 we admired views of the peaks we were about to climb. From Trap Pass (the 5,800' pass west of Trap Lake) we took a climber's trail south to the base of Slippery Slab. Slippery Slab is the first tower on the ridge, it is hard to miss.

* Slippery Slab Tower, NE face

The "obvious gulley" leading to the first belay was mostly obvious. The gulley angles north from the east side of the tower, it starts with ten feet of class 4 followed by some class 3 and ends at a belay tree with a dihedral above. The route goes up the dihedral, exits to the left, and continues up and slightly left to a tree that is just below the summit block.

I placed three mid-sized nuts, one hex, and slung a horn and a tree. It was one pitch with my 60m rope. I belayed off of the summit block instead of from the tree or the sketchy rappel station below the summit block. Cascade Alpine Guide: Climbing and High Routes: Vol 1 - Columbia River to Stevens Pass says the route can be protected by four slings, I would have been up a creek if that was all I had brought.

A single-rope rappel from the upper tree brought us back to our belay station.

* Thunder Mountain

From upper Thunder Mountain Lake, we ascended point 6,600+ (SW of the upper lake) then descended a rotten, brushy, and somewhat difficult to find gulley that left us a hundred feet below the pass between Thunder Mountain and point 6,600+ (I recommend our return route instead). We ascended the SE heather slopes of Thunder Mountain to the summit block, the summit block was straight-forward 3rd class scrambling to the cramped summit. There were two summit registers, one dating back to 1988.

On our return we traversed around the SE side of point 6,600+ back to the lake, this was an easier and more pleasant route.

* Nimbus Mountain

Nimbus Mountain was an easy scramble from Thunder Mountain Lakes. The only difficulty was the last 10 feet, which was a class 5 climb up a rectangular boulder standing on side. We tossed our rope over the boulder and top roped each other up the boulder.

* Thor Peak

From Thunder Mountain Lakes we traversed along the south slopes of Thors Toys (point 6,680+) to the 6,160+ pass between Thor Peak and Thors Toys. From the pass it was a straight-forward hike to the summit of Thor Peak. Thor's summit register dated back to 1987.

* Thors Toys

We approached the summit of Thors Toys (point 6,680+) from the 6,560+ col. We kept to the top of the ridge or slightly down on the south side of the ridge until we came to the highest crag on Thors Toys. The actual summit was an easy 15 foot class 5 climb, easily protectable, with exposure.

It seems unlikely that I was the first person to climb the crag, but the top had no cairn, so I placed one. Later I read in a trip report on The Northwest Peakbaggers Asylum that Johnny Jeans dubbed this peak "Thors Toys", but no mention was made of climbing it.

* Dog Gone Peak

On our way out we scrambled the south ridge of Dog Gone Peak from Trapp Pass. Ascending the ridge was a pleasant, short hike through open forest and heather slopes.