Sloan Peak/Corkscrew Route

This was a successful, interesting and exciting trip. We left the trailhead at about 10:30 and reached our first of five crossings of the North Fork of the Sauk river by log within 15 minutes. Much of the trail is very clear, where we got stopped by water we looked and typically found flagging. We worked to cross five log bridges over the NFS with the last one being the longest and most intimidating. Later in the year with lower water these might be less intimidating.

After the last crossing we followed the flagging curving to the right and eventually up the ridge line. We got to Cougar Falls by about 12:30 and scooted across the log there with our water shoes on. Continuing up the trail (blow down to work around occasionally) we did two more log crossings - gaining a basin at about 4,400 feet. We went directly up from there (there may be some easier ways) and bivyed at the ridge before the glacier at 5,300 feet. Wonderful night out with a full moon and amazing sunset.

We left at 4:00am and found a straight forward route across the glacier. Dropped our ropes at the edge and headed up the heather finding the trail soon after - some snow coverage we had to work around (should be melted in two weeks) and had a wonderful scramble to the top by 8:30am (need a new register book up there).

Headed back down and back at camp by 10:00. Packed up and headed out by 11:00am and back at cars by 3pm - leisurely time back to car with several longer breaks.

There are two breweries now in Darrington...keep your eye out for those!