Chiwawa, Fortress Mountains

2024-09-21

A nice loop to tag two peaks while enjoying some fall colors.

chiwawa-fortress-1.jpg Shrinking glaciers under Buck Mountain

chiwawa-fortress-2.jpg Lenticular clouds over Glacier Peak with Fortress in the foreground, where we’ll head after Chiwawa

chiwawa-fortress-3.jpg Big ol’ Bonanza Peak

chiwawa-fortress-4.jpg Where we were yesterday, the ridge of Copper, Fernow, and Seven Fingered Jack

chiwawa-fortress-5.jpg Rainier in the distance with the Luahna’s glacier in front

chiwawa-fortress-6.jpg Baker left and Shuksan center in the distance, with big ol’ Dome Peak right

chiwawa-fortress-7.jpg A bit further away, but the classic sequence of Eldorado (center, snowcapped), Forbidden (pointy), Sahale/Boston (double summit), Buckner (furthest right) out back

chiwawa-fortress-8.jpg Glacier Peak now without clouds

chiwawa-fortress-10.jpg With Helmet Butte in front - I imagine the views of GP from there are even better

chiwawa-fortress-11.jpg Colors! I don’t edit my photos, but my phone showing a fraction of the vibrancy I remember seeing in person.

chiwawa-fortress-12.jpg More PNW fall colors

chiwawa-fortress-13.jpg Buck Mountain again

chiwawa-fortress-14.jpg And its 5000 feet of vertical relief over such a short distance up close

Notes:

  • This was probably ~23 miles and ~7900 feet of vertical gain in around 11 ½ hours.
  • We decided to make it loop by first tagging Chiwawa, then going up the NE ridge of Fortress and dropping off the SW face.
    • Getting up to the NE ridge was annoyingly loose, but staying on the ridge proper and finding the class 4 chimney along the route was safer than staying in the gully (especially with other climbers going down).
    • And going back down the NE ridge would have been more tedious than the chill SW face, which is where all of the colors were anyways, along with Helmet Butte. And loops > out-and-back all day!