June 16, 2026
After a much needed "easy" day, we were ready to make another dent in traverse. I was hoping to get from cache 1 through the Gore Grand Traverse, descending to and camping at Deluge Lake afterwards. This would set us up well to reach cache 2 the following day and split the distance between the caches pretty evenly into a two-day event.
We broke camp and left by 6am, saying goodbye to the awesome camp spot which had served us well for the last couple days. A short hike brought us up to Usable Pass where we continued south to Vista Peak. Strong winds buffeted us from the west and would continue to do so for the day. The National Weather Service had issued high wind warnings over the area for the next couple days, but thankfully no storms were forecasted.
Vista Peak's north ridge started out easy but eventually became covered in snow due to its northern aspect. We worked our way onto the ridge crest, weaving between several large pinnacles and mostly remaining on the west side. About 200 ft below the summit, the west side became too snowy while the east side became a sheer drop, and we were forced onto the ridge crest with pinnacles. Although this looked daunting from below, it went at no more than class 3 and we soon found ourselves on the summit of Vista in no time.
From Vista we traversed over to Mt. Solitude and Climber's Point, finding some of the easiest terrain we had encountered so far on the crest. This wouldn't last long however, as I knew there were steep dropoffs just east of Climber's Point.
Although I knew getting off Climber's Point's east ridge was going to be involved, I didn't know exactly what it entailed. A Summitpost article mentioned that a rappel was required coming from the other direction, so that could mean anything from class 4 and up. Looking down in that direction, the anticipated jumble of cliffs and ridges were visible.
The rock quality instantly changed from granite to some kind of sedimentary shale as we dropped off the east side of Climber's Point. Up ahead, we could see where the sedimentary rock turned back to granite just above the lowpoint to the east between Climber's Point and Jackknife Tower. We carefully treaded downwards, pulling down on everything instead out outwards. The worst rock was encountered right at the lowpoint where I climbed over a class 4 stack of dinner plates.
Just above the lowpoint rose The Jackknife, a sharp red arete that shot up almost vertically into the sky for about 100 ft. As we transitioned to this arete, relief flooded over me as I realized that the rock was once again decently solid granite. I climbed up while staying a bodylength left (north) of the true arete. The climbing here was about 5.6 with big exposure. I made sure to test every hold, even though the rock was more trustworthy. I was very glad that it was not the dinner place rock we had climbed over just prior.
The arete soon mellowed out and turned to class 3 ridge which we followed for a few minutes to the top of Jackknife Tower. There was still some difficult-looking terrain ahead but the worst was behind us now.
We continued east along the ridge from Jackknife Tower on easier class 3 terrain, then onto class 4 terrain when the ridge started arcing more north. A second series of towers were encountered here, the northernmost one I dubbed "Noskip Tower." The climbing and exposure were excellent here, and I reasoned that the formation deserved a name and should not be passed up.
The east side of Noskip Tower was a simple walk-off, bringing us down to a low saddle between Noskip and South Keller. From there it was mostly a slog up to South Keller with a few class 3 moves that weren't too difficult. We dropped our packs for the brief out-and-back to South Keller's true summit.
A longer slog brought us from South Keller to North Traverse Peak. From here we could look out at the next section of ridge which made up the classic Gore Grand Traverse, ending at Grand Traverse Peak. Why this relatively small section of ridge was adorned with such a prominent sounding name was beyond me, with so many other traverses that were way more grand only a short distance away. Nevertheless, it was still a greatly fun part of the ridge, with solid rock and safe scrambling.
The first half of the Gore Grand Traverse was easy, with light class 2-3 from North Traverse Peak. As the ridge turned more east, towers began appearing. We went mostly over these, usually using notches on their right (west) sides to skirt their true tops. Due to the popularity of this section of ridge, there were many use-trails to be followed up or around the towers. It was very enjoyable with no scary sections. Before we knew it, we were standing on the summit of Grand Traverse Peak, my goal for the day.
We headed down east along talus slopes to a lowpoint just north of Deluge Lake, and began descending south to the lake where I had hoped to camp for the night. Strong winds whipped up from the southwest as we descended. Just when I was thinking how much the wind would suck for camping, I noticed a log cabin just south of the lake on a small rise. This seemed almost too good to be true.
We descended to the lake, filled up on water, and headed over to check out the cabin. To my surprise, the door was unlocked and we simply walked in, brushing aside concerns of hantavirus. It was obvious that others had been there due to the copious amount of names scratched into the wall, but for now it was all ours. We decided to spend the night there, still amazed at our good fortune of discovering an excellent shelter for the windiest night.
Even though we were simply set up on the dusty floor of the cabin, it felt like luxury to be out of the wind in a warm building. There was so much room to spread out without the two of us all scrunched up in a small tent. All throughout the night, strong winds buffeted the sides of the cabin, sometimes shaking the entire structure. A small breeze would occasionally make its way in through gaps between logs, but it was a far cry to what we would've been experiencing outside in a tent.
Midway through the night, both of us awoke to the sound of an animal loudly scratching the underside of the cabin. Toshi went outside to check it out, finding a porcupine clawing at the foundation. He poked it with a stick, which was apparently good enough to make it stop scratching and get us back to sleep.
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