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A few weeks ago Alex and I had a three day weekend planned with the intention of climbing Luna Peak, a mountain I’ve been dreaming of climbing for years now. As our trip dates approached the forecast grew increasingly wetter, with possible snow forecasted for the summit of Luna. That trip was off the table so I looked around the region hoping to find someplace with a more favorable forecast, but everywhere I looked I just found more wet weather. It looked like we weren’t going to be able to do a backpacking trip after all, but Sunday was looking clear, especially in the Olympics and I got the wild idea that maybe we could squeeze a traditional backpacking trip into a day trip.
The Chilliwacks are small cluster of peaks located in the northern-most reaches of North Cascades National Park. In fact, they are so far north the trail actually starts in Canada before crossing the border and entering the park. These peaks are known for their ruggedness and remoteness, and like any other rugged and remote places they are not easy to reach. I have had my eyes on a trip to the Chilliwacks since I first saw a photo of Silver Lake in a blog post years ago—which pivotal blog post I saw that photo in has since faded from my memory, but that image of the lake has stayed with me ever since.
I had the third weekend of July set aside for a climbing trip with my friend Kara and her friend, Sam, since the beginning of the year. Initially we had planned to climb Snowfield Peak over the weekend but between the oppressive heat and wildfires near Highway 20 we decide to change our plans. Kara suggested Sloan Peak since it was a climb that had been on her radar for years and it would still give us a Snowfield-esque experience, though in a much smaller package—Sloan has the steep, forested approach, it crosses a glacier, and it has a fun scramble to top it all off. The main difference is that Sloan can be done in a day and we wanted to avoid hiking with overnight packs in the heat so it seemed to fit our bill perfectly.