Warrior Peak, SE Summit

Activity Notes

This climb will leave the leader's house in NE PDX at 7:00 am on Friday, August 14.

We'll drive to the Upper Dungeness Trail (2,500ft), stopping for lunch along the way. Once at the trailhead, we'll pack up, do a gear check and head down the trail southwest 1 mile to the junction with the Royal Basin Trail. We'll take the left fork across a log bridge, passing Camp Handy (3,100 ft) at 3.2 mile, and arrive at the Boulder Shelter at 6.3 mi (4,950 ft), where we'll make camp for the evening.

On Saturday, we'll start before sunrise (target = 5:30am) from Boulder Shelter and hike south 2+ mile on Dungeness Trail, leaving the trail before crossing a major stream flowing from Warrior/Inner Constance cirque. We'll climb east through steep forest, then steep open meadow, then talus, staying north of the stream bed (~4,750 ft).

At ~6,200 ft, we'll reach a flat saddle just under the twin peaks of Warrior Peak. Follow the prominent couloir north-northeast to a saddle (~7,000 ft). The couloir may be filled with snow until late in the season and can be icy in cold weather. The higher peak (to the southeast) is to the right. Climb steep snow and then rock, on its northwest side. The first 20-50 feet (depending on snow level) of rock is difficult (ratings vary from class 4 to 5.2), and the rock is poor quality. A short scramble leads to the summit.

Alternately, we could skip the couloir and continue to the gully to the far east. Scramble up some rock and aim for a large bench on the right skyline. From here traverse ledges north which will take you to the east face of the peak. Scramble up from here to the summit.

We'll descend via the climbing route.

The Mountaineers describe camp-to-summit as 5-6 hours and summit-to-camp as 2.5 hours.

Once we return to camp, we can decide whether we want to stay over Saturday or hike out and drive home.