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Looking up the talus slope.
I parked the car at Barlow Pass and started hiking down the Monte Cristo Road around 10am. I turned off the gravel roadway just before the bridge (partially collapsed?) and started the steep grind up the Weeden Creek Trail. Reaching Gothic Basin after about two hours of hiking, I began making my way up a heathery shoulder beneath Del Campo’s prominent Southeast Buttress. A worn path for the most part leads all the way to the edge of a large talus slope (snow earlier in season) beneath a rocky gully in the South Face.
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Looking down from somewhere above the notch.
Once above the talus slope, I scrambled blocky terrain just left of the gully (exposed 3rd class). Aiming for a small clump of trees above a notch, I soon gained the ridge crest and turned left (west) for the final scramble to the summit. Staying on the far-left side of a small amphitheater, I enjoyed some fun scrambling directly along the crest and reached the summit soon thereafter.
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View of Sloan Peak and Glacier Peak (left-to-right) from summit.
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Columbia Peak at right with Seventy-Six Glacier at center. Kyes Peak (pointed twin peaks) and Monte Cristo Peak (at left) in background.
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Looking west towards Sperry Peak in foreground (left) and Big Four Mountain at midground (right-of-center). Three Fingers and Whitehorse Mountain in background (left-to-right).
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View over Crater Lake with Sheep Gap Mountain behind (North Peak just to its left). The serrate peak in the center distance is Spire Peak with Gunn Peak to the right.
After a quick lunch, I began the descent – this time staying to the left side (climber’s right) of the amphitheater. Some dealing on unpleasantly loose and exposed terrain eventually saw me back the clump of trees above the notch. Retrieving my trekking poles near the bottom of the gully, I began traversing right across the talus slope. Unable to locate a viable route down through the brushy cliffs this high above the Gothic-Del Campo Saddle, I continued down on talus for a bit longer and dove into the next break in the tree-lined cliff edge. Here I was able to link various steep heather patches together to eventually reach grassy slopes above Crater Lake and just a short distance below the saddle.
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Looking up at Castle Rocks.
From the saddle, I hiked up glacier-polished slabs beneath Castle Rocks aiming for a prominent notch between Gothic Peak and the southeast-most tower of Castle Rocks. I gained the notch after a short move on the wall to the right.
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Del Campo from Gothic summit.
The steep drop-off on the other side was unexpected, so I carefully inched my way onto the upper West Face and began pulling heather and rock to reach the crest of Gothic’s Northwest Ridge. Easy scrambling soon saw me to the summit.
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The view over North Fork Sultan River Valley. The ridge at center is called Rojo Peak. Static Peak is the nub at upper left. At upper right is Mount Pilchuck and at extreme right is Vesper Peak.
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Looking down Gothic's Southeast Ridge.
A short descent along Gothic’s SE Ridge brought me down to talus and slabs above Crater Lake. A tedious descent led to the lakeshore, then down to the lower lake whereupon I regained the Weeden Creek Trail.
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Gothic-Del Campo panorama from Crater Lake.
Reaching the Monte Cristo Road in good time, I arrived back at my car around 6:00pm (8hrs round-trip). All in all, a fine end-of-season solo outing with just enough scrambling to distinguish itself from…um, a hike.
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