Bills Peak - 11.10.2015
A photo of a portion of the GPS track for our trip to Bills Peak... 7.6 miles roundtrip, gaining 3459 feet of elevation.
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Starting (~3600') at the Beverly Turnpike trailhead.
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After hiking a half-mile we reached the junction with the Bean Creek Trail... but we will continue on the turnpike trail.
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Snowdog crosses Bean Creek... best to use the rocks that aren't covered with ice.
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Continuing up valley we got our first good look at Bills Peak... kind of intimidating from here... however, the ridge on the right (east) provides a good route to the summit.
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After hiking ~2.5 miles (~5200') we will leave the Beverly Turnpike Trail and take the Fourth Creek Trail... and follow it for a quarter mile to Fourth Creek Pass.
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On the Fourth Creek Trail and heading for Fourth Creek Pass... now we can see that the SE ridge of Bills Peak looks very manageable.
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Iron Peak from Fourth Creek Pass (~5640').
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Dragontail Peak and Little Annapurna from Fourth Creek Pass.
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rodman and Snowdog are above Fourth Creek Pass... on the SE ridge of Bills Peak... with Iron Peak in the distance.
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iraman leads the way on the SE ridge of Bills Peak... Dragontail Peak, Little Annapurna and McClellan Peak in the center of the photo... Volcanic Neck on the far right.
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A closeup of Dragontail, Little Annapurna and McClellan Peak from the SE ridge of Bills Peak.
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Looking across Fourth Creek Pass to Volcanic Neck, Bean Peak and Marys Peak.
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Snowdog on the SE ridge of Bills Peak... the summit is up there somewhere.
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Working our way towards the Bills Peak summit.
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Are we having fun yet... some scrambling was involved... but we are slightly off route... more on that later.
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Up and up.
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Izzy keeps an eye on Ira as he nears what we think is the summit.... Sherpa Peak in the distance on the right.
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Sherpa Peak on the far left to McClellan Peak on the right.
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Almost on the summit... at least we think so.
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Arg... this is not the summit... but since we are here we will go ahead and climb it... then make the short trip over to the real summit.
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iraman on the false summit.
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Me on the crux move (easier up than down) to the false summit.
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ragman on the false summit.
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We left the false summit and made the short walk over to the real summit... here iraman finishes up the last few steps to the summit.
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Iron Peak from the Bills Peak summit... Mt. Rainier in the distance on the far right.
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There were wind gusts on the Bills Peak summit (6917')... Fortune Peak and Ingalls Peak in the center of the photo... with Mt. Stuart on the right.
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A summit selfie... iraman, Snowdog, ragman and rodman.
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Follow the ridge from Teanaway Peak on the far left over to Longs Pass... and on over to Ingalls Pass... and Fortune Peak and Ingalls Peak.
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A closeup of Fortune Peak and the three summits of Ingalls Peak.
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iraman is heading back to his pack after getting blown off of the Bill's Peak summit... Mt. Stuart on the left... then Sherpa, Argonaut, Colchuck, Dragontail and Little Annapurna.
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rodman coming down the fairly steep gully that we should have used on the way up.
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Descending the SE ridge of Bills Peak... heading back down to Fourth Creek Pass... left to right... Bean Peak, Earl Peak, Marys Peak and Judis Peak.
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Back to the dirt on the SE ridge of Bills Peak.
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Descending the SE ridge of Bills Peak... with Iron Peak in the distance... almost back down to Fourth Creek Pass... which will leave a 2.8 mile hike back to the car.
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