Re: Free Download Fury Below
Raingarda Krzynowek
The Fury HD 5000 reticle (top) vs the Fury HD reticle (below). Note: These photos were taken by hand-holding a camera above the optic, so the images of the reticles are somewhat incomplete or unclear.
With this setup, the experience range varied vastly, i would not recommend a fury below 90 ranged due to splashing chinchompas. (they had families, don't make them die for nothing) With this setup my experience ranged from 270k-305k xp/hr. i did not want to keep wasting chins, so i ported early.
Mount Fury (West Fury) is second-highest after Luna Peak in the Northern Picket Range. It lies in one of the remote places inside the national park. Even the direct route via Luna Col and Access Basin can be time-consuming.
Luckily, the driver had dropped off the previous party much sooner and returned to the dock. He then took us on a short, scenic ride to Big Beaver Campground. The extra hour could let us reach Luna Col before sundown.
We took several water breaks over lots of chattering. The last people we saw were a group of three climbers from Luna Col plus a hiker by a stream. Meanwhile, I tried not to step on the gazillion baby frogs en route before reaching Luna Camp at mile 10.
We continued for another mile past the camp before picking a random spot to leave the trail. There were minimal down trees and light brush. At the same time, we worked our way toward Big Beaver Creek.
Like the time before, the massive Devils Club along the shore made it hard to see the water. Even with the GPS point from my old trip, we could not locate the log jam. So we decided to look further down the creek.
We scrambled through the semi-open forest before Chandler spotted more flagging, leading us back on the faint trail. From there, we were within earshot of Access Creek. The path soon took us through dense slide alder by the water.
We followed the cairns strewing the talus and boulder-hopped up the basin. The spur paths before the small forest all went in the same direction while hugging the creek. Soon, we followed a faint trail before going south into the snow-free gully.
Another bluebird day, and we left camp at 6 AM with breakfast on the go. But we were off route as soon as we walked onto the snow below Point 7360. So we double-checked the map and saw the red ledge around the high point.
Back at the col, we went through boulders and reached the access ramp shortly. It soon took us around the west of Point 7360 down to the meadow, where we started seeing cairns. Soon, we went up to the next high point above a steep scree gully.
I saw the snowfield below the scree gully earlier, which we bypassed by hugging the buttresses. We soloed through the steep tower with several low-fifth moves. I found it quite enjoyable moving through the sloping granite rocks.
It took several acrobatic moves to go through the steep slopes. We soon rounded the buttress via the snow ramp up the snowfield. Meanwhile, a lone mountain goat watched us at a distance as we continued below the glacier.
The arte took us straight up the summit ridge before going through some boulders. Ok. So, it could be the best spot to view the Southern Pickets! We dropped our overnight gear and read the summit register entries before leaving.
Mount Fury (West Fury) looked gnarly from here, and I struggled to identify the individual towers noted in other reports. But our first job was to drop onto the west, followed by the steep traverse below the jagged ridge.
We bypassed the tower and worked our way up through heather and slabs. Soon, we were at the notch between the first and second towers. We immediately located the south-bending, class 4 scree ramp before rounding north of tower two.
The narrow ledge behind tower two led us to yet another steep scree ramp. We saw a rappel station en route but moved down via the exposed slabs. We soon bypassed tower three from the north via the notch with several low-fifth moves.
The climb was worth all the sweat and cursing. But East Mount Fury still held the most glorious view of the Southern Pickets. Meanwhile, we were closer to the other Northern Picket peaks, including Phantom Peak.
As we retraced our steps, we climbed up to tower one instead of going around it. Then we spotted the noted rappel station on the east, which looked sketchier to me than it did for Chandler. But if others had taken the same route, it could be fine, I guess?
Our 60m rope barely reached the top of the steep snow. Then we rotated between rocks and snowfields, which made putting on crampons and taking them off old very fast. Chandler followed our tracks as I opted for the mostly snow-free lower route.
Before long, we were on the southeast shoulder, looking down atop the gully. Morning fog in the valleys below formed a magical scenery. Alas! After one last look at the Southern Pickets, we were off to Access Basin.
We found parts of the trail we had missed on day one. But we soon lost the path again right before crossing Access Creek to the south side. Then we scrambled some more and aimed at the massive log jam.
The pain in my left heel persisted, and the approach shoes exacerbated the discomfort even more. In turn, the 11 miles out to the dock took much longer. I asked Chandler to go ahead so I could take my sweet-arse time and rest if needed.
Eventually, I was 10 minutes late for the water taxi pickup, but the boat was also late to get us. After a short break by the serene lake, we took the scenic ride back to the dock. Then came the one-mile walk uphill to Highway 20. Ugh, as if!
Located near the southern end of the Northern Pickets, Mount Fury is wild, rugged and remote. In fact, this is one of Washington's most remote climbs and while the technical pitches are few, the overall length of your climbing days (both in time and miles) are so great that even the fittest climbers will get the "expedition" feeling by day three. If you are in excellent shape, experienced and not afraid of being days away from rescue, Fury (along with Luna Peak) is the quintessential Cascades trip. Fury is a wonderful mixture of hiking, bushwhacking, scrambling, camping, rock climbing and glacier climbing.
Mount Fury has two distinct peaks that are worlds apart. The east peak, which is the easier of the two can be done on a traverse of the Picket Range with Class 3 scrambling and a steep glacier climb, or via a more direct route that avoids the steep glacier and ascends Class 3 rock with 20 feet of low 5th class rock (see Route Options below).
The west peak however should probably be its own peak. Topping out at the same 8,280 feet as the east peak, no one really knows which one is higher, despite the west peak being the one labeled on the USGS map. To ascend this peak will require nearly a full extra day (beyond the 2-3 days it takes to just get to the east peak) and involves hours of tough exposed scrambling with some 5th class rock climbing (both up and down) up to around 5.4 (although the entire route is sometimes solod). As of 2016, the west peak has seen less than 20 successful parties reach its lofty summit, and it's included in the original "Difficult 10; Washington's Hardest Peaks list" compiled by WA climber Dallas Kloke. Although some of the peaks on this list are very arguable, West Fury is not one of the peaks people think twice about regarding its inclusion on the list.
From Seattle, go north and take SR 20 (North Cascades Highway) towards Ross Lake. Park at the Ross Lake Resort Trailhead 13.4 miles east of Newhalem. The folks at Ross Lake Resort run a ferry boat that can take you and your gear up Ross Lake to the Big Beaver Trailhead. Making a reservation for the boat ride is highly recommended simply so they know to pick you up. The cost is now $60 per ride regardless of how many climbers are on the boat (a group of 6 and huge packs fills the boat nicely). You should set an arranged time to meet the ferry and be sure to account for the 20 minute hike on the trail leading down to the lake shore from the highway parking area. Upon arriving at the dock, there is a phone attached to a pole you can use to call the Ross Lake Resort office (located across the lake) so you can let them know you're ready, and they will send a driver with the boat to pick you up. Alternatively, if you are on a budget you can also skip the boat ride and hike the lakeshore trail, which follows the west side of Ross Lake, for 7 miles one way to the start of the Big Beaver Trail. The trailhead parking is the same. This adds 2-3 hours each way to the journey.
Once you reach the Big Beaver Trailhead (20 minutes on the boat; elevation 1,600 feet), hike up the very mellow trail through nice old growth forests for 8 miles to the established Luna Camp. An additional 1.5 miles north of Luna Camp along the trail, you will leave the comfort of easy walking and begin the real adventure. Try to locate a small boot path heading left, and cross Big Beaver Creek just north of where Access Creek enters Big Beaver Creek. Some years you can find a convenient log to cross, and some years you will have to wade. This crossing is around 2,460 feet in elevation. Hike along the north flank of Access Creek in semi-open forest. Near 3,700ft, where travel becomes very brushy, cross to the creek to its south bank.
From here, look for cairns and a faint trail that will utilize talus fields and avoid much of the slide alder brush and deposit you into the upper basin at the headwaters of the creek. There is good camping here. If you cannot locate the small boot path, you will be in for some annoying bushwhacking most of the way but it never gets truly unbearable as long as you stay on the north side of Access Creek up to 3,700 feet where you will definitely want to cross to the south side. From the Access Creek headwaters at about 4,400 feet, ascend southwest up broad talus (or snow) gullies heading up towards a noticeable gap in the ridge. Once on the ridge, traverse south of Point 6,730 on grass and heather and emerge into a large basin to the SE of Luna Peak. Traverse across this basin at the 6,600 foot level towards Luna Col, which is the obvious notch between Luna Peak to the right and a small tower to the left. There is a great spot to camp at this col, or just 150 feet below it on the east side. From here you can ascend the south ridge of Luna Peak before continuing on towards Mount Fury. See the detailed map below for good info on the approach.
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