Route: Lime Ridge - Glacier Pk/Chocolate Glacier - Dakobad Range Climbed: August 21, 1999 Features: Lime Ridge, Fire Creek Pass, Glacier Pk/Chocolate Glacier, Disappointment Pk, Glacier Gap, Honeycomb Glacier, Suiattle River, Dakobad Range. This is an 8 day traverse from the Suiattle river trail to the White river trail, climbing Glacier Pk via the Chocolate Glacier. Day 1: Got dropped off at the Suiattle river trail head. Hike the Suiattle river trail cross the bridge. At the first creek, which comes down from Rivord lake, pick up a foot path just on the right (north) bank. this is faint at first, but becomes a clear path which goes up the broad ridge toward Box Mtn. It is steep, brushy, and does not relent until 4000 ft. At 4500 ft you come out into some open country and the first decent camping options. We continued on and camped at the lake below Lime Mtn (5500 ft). [4200 ft gain in 5 hours.] Day 2: Hike south on Lime ridge, following the foot trail which passes to the east of most lakes. This is difficult walking on steep side hills with a lot of up and down over ridges. At Lime lake traverse high above (east) of lake, cross saddle, and walk along ENE facing slope to Mica Lake. We went up to ridge above Mica lake then camped in basin just east of Fire Creek Pass. [2800 gain, 2600 ft loss, in 7:30 hours] Day 3: From this basin we went directly south up a slope, crossed a ridge, then descended a steep, loose slope to the SE, crossing the outlet of Milk Lake (also marked as a glacier, but now a lake). We continued up a ridge, and worked our way to the ridge line at the head of Pumice Creek. We traversed east over the Ptarmigan Glacier and crossed the ridge to the east at about 7100. Traversed the Vista Glacier and crossed the next ridge to the east at about 7250. Then we traversed the Ermine glacier and camped at the saddle between that and the Dusty glacier at about 7500 ft. Camping on flat snow at glacier's edge. [3040 gain, 1400 loss, 7 hours] Day 4: We continued on around the mountain, crossing the Dusty then North Guardian glacier at 7500 ft and above. We stepped on to the Chocolate glacier at the base of the rock ridge that separates it from the North Guardian, at about 8000 ft. The Chocolate is easiest to climb on the right (north) side. At the top it is split. The right side is steeper, but can be seen. The left is less steep but hidden from view. We choose the right side and ascended it's left edge, near the rock cleaver (45deg snow). From above it looked like the right side would have been passable as well. We intended to camp on the summit. There is a good bivi site on dirt or plenty of flat snow. The bivi site is reasonably well protected and the summit seems somewhat protected from wind. However, a front was moving in and we didn't want to sit out a storm on the summit. We descended a broad gully to the ST (loose dirt and rock, not bad) and then worked left to the ridge leading to Disappointment Peak. It would be possible to cross Disappointment Peak and descend the S face, but it is very loose rock. At the low point in the ridge we stepped on to the top of the Cool Glacier and descended the right (south) edge of that till we could cross the ridge at about 9700. There is a small ice fall here, easily navigated. We traversed back to the long ridge running south and descended on snow to it's left (east). We camped on rock at 7100 ft, east of Glacier Gap. There is good camping at Glacier Gap as well, but it tends to be windy there. However, it was also windy where we camped and we had to move then tent to a more protected area at 1 AM. Then at dawn we had to get up and trench around the tent because our protected area was a drainage. [3400 gain, 3800 loss, 11 hours] Day 5: Descending the Honeycomb Glacier. The weather was bad so we hung around to see what would happen. If it remained bad we could bail out to the White Chuck river from here and walk out on trail. Fortunately, it cleared and we continued east. From camp we traversed the Suiattle glacier to cross on to the Honeycomb at 7100ft. Descend the right (south then east) side of the Honeycomb to 6000 ft where it is possible to exit and cross a small saddle. Below this saddle descend 400 ft to a tarn and excellent (except for mosquitos) camping. [370 gain, 1720 loss, 3 hours] Day 6: Climb Ten Peak. We climbed the N coulior. This is about 2000 ft of steep snow, 1200 in a wide (100 ft) coulior. 35deg low and up to 50deg at the top. The top of the coulior splits. The left branch is more broken while the right is continuous and steeper. The right is more direct and preferred. We went up the left side and down the right. From the top of the right side scramble up ridge toward summit. Up to low 5th class, bring a rope and a small rack. We didn't and turned around a bit below the summit. [2530 gain, 2530 loss, 8 hours] Day 7: Dakobad Traverse. From the Tarn traverse east, gradually gaining elevation to eventually pass below a large rock ridge (about 6000 ft). Then ascend meadow slops to a lake at 6400 ft. Head south to crest, then directly up to about 7500 ft to pass above slabs. Contour around basin (head of Napequa river) and onto Butterfly Glacier. Cross ridge at about 8000 ft. We planed to continue on the glaciers, crossing the Pilts, Roberts, and Clark (Walrus) glaciers. But from this pass we saw that the head wall of the Pilts was fairly steep, steeper than we felt like climbing (45 to 50 deg). So here we bailed out to the south side of the range to follow the Clark Mountain high route at about 6000 ft. (See Rocks and Routes). There is an old trail here, good in some places, lost in others, and often brushy. It finishes by crossing a ridge at 6100 into upper Bolder Creek basin. We camped there. [3500 gain, 3370 loss, 10 hours] Day 8: Bolder Creek to White River. Hiked down trail. Bugs very bad. Wore gortex jackets for protection. [250 gain, 3500 loss, 3 hours] Trip total: 20,100 ft gain, 19,000 ft loss. [Route description written by Tom Unger]