big three mine – Wild Wanderer

RT Length: 6.87 miles

Elevation Gain: 2945’

I made it to the Bandora Mine the day before, and spent the day scouting potential routes.

In the evening I did a little catch and release fishing, the beavers came out of their lodges, and I saw one tail flip a coyote who got too close.

Beaver and Coyote:

Then a bull moose came strolling around, and I went to bed. I was on the trail at 6:30am the next morning. I took the trail to Lake Hope, which started just to the south of the parking area.

I took this class 1 trail southwest for about .8 miles.

At around 11160’ of elevation I left the trail, and turned right. If you get to the Big Three Mine you’ve gone too far. I placed a cairn here, and headed north.

I bushwhacked north up the mountainside to treeline

I was headed here, which included some willow navigation. I found if I stayed high I could follow game trails.

Once I could see this ridge I turned left and headed northeast to a basin

I kept heading northeast, as the tundra changed over to talus

Now in the upper basin, I aimed for the Beattie/Fuller Saddle.

I stayed to the left of the snow, and found the talus was surprisingly stable.

Once at the saddle, I turned left and followed the class 2 ridge to Beattie Peak

I summited Beattie Peak at 8:45am

Beattie Peak:

I could see PT 13302 to the southwest.

Now is a good time to put your helmet on. This is a class 3 ridge, but starts out as class 2. This is the overall route I took to get there, taking the ridge to a gully.

The initial descent of the ridge is class 2

But quickly becomes narrow, sustained class 3 with exposure. The ridge proper goes at class 3, but twice I dipped down to the left to avoid the exposure involved. Here are some pictures of the ridge

I was now at the base of the gully. Microspikes helped here.

This is the route I took

And some pictures of the gully

At the top of the gully I went right

And then I could see the final approach to the summit

This is the overall route I took to the summit

There were two summit cairns, each about 15 feet apart. They looked to be of equal height.

I summited PT 13302 at 10am

PT 13302:

I know the traditional way to descend from PT 13302 is to head southwest and down to the V9/PT 13302 saddle, but I’d been there the day before, and did not want to descend that way. Instead, I headed southwest towards a small saddle, then turned left and scree-surfed south.