Gunn Peak - Aug. 14-15, 2021 (+ Aug. 12-13, 2022 redux)
In mid-August, I headed back to the Cascades for a solid outing with my friend Tobin. We got a leisurely start from the Seattle area around 9 AM and from what I remember – my memory is a bit hazy at this point – were on the trail by noon. I won’t write too much about the approach up to Gunn Peak except to say that it was straightforward but strenuous. Lots of gain in a fairly short distance. I was a bit worried about the heat and wildfire smoke and had been checking smoke forecast all week. We expected the first day to be pretty hot and smokey but hoped that it would all blow away by Sunday.
We reached the upper basin in about three hours and Mount Baring, which is just across the valley, was barely visible through the smoke. It at least didn’t smell or have any noticeable physical effects on us. After setting up camp and a quick lunch break for me, we headed up to climb Gunn Peak. The only scramble section was the gully lead up to the upper talus fields. This was my first scramble in several years and I forgot what class 3 exposure felt like, but it ended up being fine. Some of the holds were a bit awkward due to my short height (I’ve had multiple people tell me being short is actually an advantage in real rock climbing; I don’t doubt them, it’s just I’ve never been climbing with a tall person and had them encounter a move that was awkward for them but not for me. I’ve had plenty of the opposite scenario, though!) but everything went fine.
Views from the top were extremely smokey (see the first photo in this post) and we couldn’t see past Mount Baring nor did we get any interesting colors for sunset. Back at camp, the smoke began to settle low in the valleys. Prayed that it would clear some for a sunrise, which it sort of did. There was still no real alpenglow on the peaks but at least we could actually see Baring and some of the peaks beyond on Sunday. Tobin went up Tailgunner while I played around with my camera at camp.
Summit views from my 2022 trip. Views were better but it was still smokey and clouds descended on the entire basin before sunset.
The plan for today was to head up Wing Peak before descending back to the trailhead. We knew from the day before that we could access the main ridge of Wing by dropping back down into the basin north of the ridge which we went through en route to Gunn. Tobin wanted to directly hop on the ridge which looked accessible from our camp, but I was worried that there seemed to be a couple of gendarmes blocking the ridge which were just out of site. So we compromised and paralleled a small ravine along the ridge which didn’t require us to lose too much elevation and was smooth traveling on talus and intermittent snow. Scrambling up the ridge was pretty easy until we hit the summit block. There were a couple of class 5 moves required to reach the summit that I didn’t feel comfortable with, so Tobin went on alone while I stayed behind. Took some consolation photos of Merchant and Baring from an overlook just below the summit block which ended up coming out pretty nice.
A self photo of me taken with a tripod.
We spotted the wreckage of a plane crash on the southern slopes (which a friend had told me to look for). I assumed the peak was named for the crash, but evidently it was named for the Seattle city council member who perished in it and who coincidentally was also named Wing. Turns out he was a decent guy, at least as far as politicians go.
The skies had cleared considerably today and we had very good views. The downside was that without the smoke, the sun bared its full force down on us on the descent. In hindsight, this descent (about 3500 ft of elevation in 1.5 miles) was probably where I first overextended my knees. A few days later it would act up again in the North Cascades to the point where I feared I might need search and rescue to help me down the trail. Probably I shouldn’t have done such a steep hike for my first overnighter in two years. Probably I should have packed lighter, exercised more – or at all – in the spring, moved slower. But I’m proud I did this trip with little trouble and hope to return next year in search of clear summit views.
Side note: I came back here for a quick overnight in 2022. I scrambled Gunn Peak a little before sunset and then went up Tailgunner for sunset. Tragically, the clouds moved in and I spent sunset and sunrise socked in. Maybe the third time will be the charm?
