Buck Mountain, July 30, 2014 (written 8/11/2014). Buck Mountain (11,938') is an imposing sight from Jackson Hole. It's the largest of the southerly summits, and is surprisingly accessible, although not via a maintained trail. The class 4 route on the East Ridge is spectacular. The easier East Face makes a nice descent route. The access is from the Death Canyon trail-head. Simply hike up the trail to just before the 3rd foot bridge and and you should soon find a small path to the right (north). Follow this path through the woods, cross a couple of meadows as you climb, and you'll be in Stewart Draw.
I left Death Canyon trail head about 6:45 am. Probably a bit too late, given the unsettled weather of the past few days, but all turned out okay. After turning into Stewart draw, and hiking about an hour, one must cross the creek. Normal mid and late season, this is easy, but this year, the water was still high. I didn't relish the idea of a cold wade, so I looked upstream and found a rock and a logjam which allowed me to jump across. Trekking poles were very helpful.
I relocated the trail on the north side of the creek easily and continued up. After some moderate grade, I eventually popped out of the trees and found myself at the bottom of a cirque. Followed the trail, which moved more northerly, and was able to ascend, with several short switchbacks, up to about 9,600 ft. It then turns westerly, and climbs slowly toward an area of slabby rock outcrops. These are pretty flat, and there were a few patches of snow as well. There are very few cairns and no path in this section. Before actually getting to the slabs, I gained elevation a bit too quickly and found myself in a field of large boulders. Looking down about 100 feet, I saw a cairn. So I made my way down to it, to get back on track. However, in doing so, I slipped a foothold and my left foot went into a hole between boulders. All that stopped me was my left hip hitting the rock very hard. It hurt! I knew there'd be a good bruise from this. I continued on.
Above the slabs, the east ridge rises dramatically drops from the saddle between Buck Mountain and point 10,696. The ridge can be accessed from the slabs by continuing west and a shade north and climbing to the ridge at its most easterly point, or by continuing to work your way more strictly westerly under some cliffs until there is a weakness in the cliff that can be climbed through and then ascend to the ridge. This second approach appeared to me to be wet from melting snow so I stuck to the first choice. I climbed a snow slope to what looked like an elegant class 4 way to attain the ridge. The snow had melted way from the rock, leaving a large moat to cross. I choose a likely crossing, climbed down into the moat and back up on class 4 rock. First I encountered easy climbing, but soon the steepness increased as did the exposure. After a few easy class 5 moves, I decided it was time to reassess. While I was clearly going to the ridge line, it didn't seem like a safe approach given that above me it looked more like a 5.5 with exposure. So I descended, got back on the snow slope and looked for better lines. At first, no luck, but eventually I did find a dirty chimney with easy class 4 climbing. However, I had lost about 40 minutes and I was worried about being off the peak before any afternoon rain showers. So I had a little talk with myself; reminded myself I had already bruised my hip significantly, and it was already about 11 am. But I figured the next short bit was safe, and I would at least find if I was on the correct route. It would still be easy to retreat if I needed to. So up I went. After a short distance, I noticed a group of small trees that I passed by. They can be seen from below and would be a good landmark to help know where to ascend up to the ridge.....basically take the line that allows one to most efficiently pass these trees.
It was now 11:20 am. But the sky looked okay, the ridge didn't look too long, so I decided to press on. It was all class 3 and the lower ridge is 20 or more feet wide. As I ascended, there were occasional easy class 4 sections. The view to the right (north) was often spectacular, and the views can be enjoyed without exposure. In the upper part of the ridge there is a large isolated block known as the "Fortress", which can easily be avoided by working to the left a little. Just prior to the Fortress, however, there is a very short true knife-edge.....vertical exposure for a thousand feet or so to the north, and very steep smooth rock to the south. Crossing this 6 foot feature is an easy hand traverse (with friction for the feet) with one's body on the south side. Because the feature is so knife-like, you can't help but look and respect the vertical nature on the north side, but in addition, a fall to the south side would have serious consequences. Some people might want a rope for protection at this spot. It may also be possible to avoid it by retreating a few minutes down the ridge and then traversing out onto the east face, although I didn't see any such a route that was obvious. (And I certainly didn't feel like backtracking and route finding with the summit so close!). So I did the hand traverse and keep going.
The rest of the way to the summit was easier, just staying to the left to avoid the Fortress, and taking the line of least resistance. I got to the summit at 12:20. Later than planned, but the weather was okay. Had a short lunch, took some pictures, and started down the east face route. I avoided snow patches by moving a bit to the west. These patches were a bit steep, not the best to negotiate in approach shoes and without an ice axe. Eventually, I got to the large and less steep snow patch on the east face, and did a downward sloping traverse and regained the east ridge quite low down. From there, it was route reversal: short distance down the ridge, past the small group of trees, down the dirty chimney, across the moat to the snow, down the slabs, and so on.
By now, my bruised hip hurt much more. As a result, walking down was slow, and I found I needed to do the occasional short uphill section with half steps only; glad there wasn't much of that. Was back to the car at 4:45 pm. Between my route finding issue and the slow walk out, it was much too long of a day. Should have been back to the car by 2 pm or so had things gone better.
But all in all, still a good day in the mountains and a bit of fun scrambling!
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| The East Face of Buck Mountain showing the approach and the East Ridge. The trail dips into Stewart Draw for a couple of kilometers. |
I left Death Canyon trail head about 6:45 am. Probably a bit too late, given the unsettled weather of the past few days, but all turned out okay. After turning into Stewart draw, and hiking about an hour, one must cross the creek. Normal mid and late season, this is easy, but this year, the water was still high. I didn't relish the idea of a cold wade, so I looked upstream and found a rock and a logjam which allowed me to jump across. Trekking poles were very helpful.
I relocated the trail on the north side of the creek easily and continued up. After some moderate grade, I eventually popped out of the trees and found myself at the bottom of a cirque. Followed the trail, which moved more northerly, and was able to ascend, with several short switchbacks, up to about 9,600 ft. It then turns westerly, and climbs slowly toward an area of slabby rock outcrops. These are pretty flat, and there were a few patches of snow as well. There are very few cairns and no path in this section. Before actually getting to the slabs, I gained elevation a bit too quickly and found myself in a field of large boulders. Looking down about 100 feet, I saw a cairn. So I made my way down to it, to get back on track. However, in doing so, I slipped a foothold and my left foot went into a hole between boulders. All that stopped me was my left hip hitting the rock very hard. It hurt! I knew there'd be a good bruise from this. I continued on.
Above the slabs, the east ridge rises dramatically drops from the saddle between Buck Mountain and point 10,696. The ridge can be accessed from the slabs by continuing west and a shade north and climbing to the ridge at its most easterly point, or by continuing to work your way more strictly westerly under some cliffs until there is a weakness in the cliff that can be climbed through and then ascend to the ridge. This second approach appeared to me to be wet from melting snow so I stuck to the first choice. I climbed a snow slope to what looked like an elegant class 4 way to attain the ridge. The snow had melted way from the rock, leaving a large moat to cross. I choose a likely crossing, climbed down into the moat and back up on class 4 rock. First I encountered easy climbing, but soon the steepness increased as did the exposure. After a few easy class 5 moves, I decided it was time to reassess. While I was clearly going to the ridge line, it didn't seem like a safe approach given that above me it looked more like a 5.5 with exposure. So I descended, got back on the snow slope and looked for better lines. At first, no luck, but eventually I did find a dirty chimney with easy class 4 climbing. However, I had lost about 40 minutes and I was worried about being off the peak before any afternoon rain showers. So I had a little talk with myself; reminded myself I had already bruised my hip significantly, and it was already about 11 am. But I figured the next short bit was safe, and I would at least find if I was on the correct route. It would still be easy to retreat if I needed to. So up I went. After a short distance, I noticed a group of small trees that I passed by. They can be seen from below and would be a good landmark to help know where to ascend up to the ridge.....basically take the line that allows one to most efficiently pass these trees.
 |
| The East Face and Ridge of Buck Mountain. Picture taken from Jackson Hole with a zoom of 320 mm. I climbed to the summit via the ridge, and descended via the face. |
It was now 11:20 am. But the sky looked okay, the ridge didn't look too long, so I decided to press on. It was all class 3 and the lower ridge is 20 or more feet wide. As I ascended, there were occasional easy class 4 sections. The view to the right (north) was often spectacular, and the views can be enjoyed without exposure. In the upper part of the ridge there is a large isolated block known as the "Fortress", which can easily be avoided by working to the left a little. Just prior to the Fortress, however, there is a very short true knife-edge.....vertical exposure for a thousand feet or so to the north, and very steep smooth rock to the south. Crossing this 6 foot feature is an easy hand traverse (with friction for the feet) with one's body on the south side. Because the feature is so knife-like, you can't help but look and respect the vertical nature on the north side, but in addition, a fall to the south side would have serious consequences. Some people might want a rope for protection at this spot. It may also be possible to avoid it by retreating a few minutes down the ridge and then traversing out onto the east face, although I didn't see any such a route that was obvious. (And I certainly didn't feel like backtracking and route finding with the summit so close!). So I did the hand traverse and keep going.
 |
| The upper East Face and East Ridge. |
The rest of the way to the summit was easier, just staying to the left to avoid the Fortress, and taking the line of least resistance. I got to the summit at 12:20. Later than planned, but the weather was okay. Had a short lunch, took some pictures, and started down the east face route. I avoided snow patches by moving a bit to the west. These patches were a bit steep, not the best to negotiate in approach shoes and without an ice axe. Eventually, I got to the large and less steep snow patch on the east face, and did a downward sloping traverse and regained the east ridge quite low down. From there, it was route reversal: short distance down the ridge, past the small group of trees, down the dirty chimney, across the moat to the snow, down the slabs, and so on.
 |
| From the summit of Buck Mountain looking down the East Ridge route. The saddle between Buck and Point 10696 is in the middle right of the photo. |
By now, my bruised hip hurt much more. As a result, walking down was slow, and I found I needed to do the occasional short uphill section with half steps only; glad there wasn't much of that. Was back to the car at 4:45 pm. Between my route finding issue and the slow walk out, it was much too long of a day. Should have been back to the car by 2 pm or so had things gone better.
But all in all, still a good day in the mountains and a bit of fun scrambling!
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