Alpine Scramble - Boundary Peak

Gear: No traction devices used. Snow was kind of firm even on a 75°F day.

This scramble had been on my list for a while - I actually got turned back in 2022 when I was still a student. This time, I finally completed it as a mentored lead, with much better weather on our side. Funny enough, we discovered at the trailhead that one of my participants was actually Jerrick, the former leader of trip I was on. Small world!

I originally expected this to be a moderate snow scramble, but it turned out to be more involved. Conditions included two short Class 4 sections where I set up handlines to descend, and a long traverse alternating between snow and rock to avoid crevasses along the ridge. It made sense why Jerrick finally summited on his fourth attempt out of the park boundary. Now, he’s hoping to return via the normal route starting within the park.

We left from the Snow Lake Trailhead at 8:41 am, following the trail to an avalanche gully. A party ahead of us used crampons to ascend the gully, but we found them unnecessary and made steady progress by kicking steps. After ascending into a basin, we encountered a moat right before the col between Unicorn and West Unicorn. This was one of the cruxes of the route: a short Class 4 rock section with some running water. Fortunately, the handholds and footholds were solid. I noticed another party was belaying this pitch, but our group climbed it without issue. Two trees above had fixed slings and rappel rings; I inspected one of them, and it looked solid and new. Condition here is different than 2022. It was all snow with moat, so you may or may not encounter moat.

From there, we continued up snow to a ridge. While the route to Unicorn veers left, we headed right, descending the ridge toward Boundary Peak. The ridge had large cornices and moats, forcing us to traverse below them through alternating snow, rock, and bushes. Routefinding was a bit tricky here, but the terrain itself wasn’t too difficult.

We traversed to back side of the peak and find the final gully to the summit. The final gully below Boundary’s summit was the other crux of the trip—about 15 feet of loose Class 4 climbing. Everyone in our group ascended it, climbing one at a time to minimize rockfall risk. After topping out of the gully, we reached the summit. Despite the hot forecast, a steady breeze kept temperatures comfortable.

We spent about 20 minutes on the summit before starting our descent. I set a handline for the downclimb; some used it, while others descended without it. The rock was loose, and we inevitably kicked down a few rocks. Back at the moat below Unicorn Col, I set another handline. One group was rappelling here, likely for practice - it wasn’t really necessary in current conditions. After crossing the moat, we enjoyed about 1,000 feet of glissading down to the avalanche gully. As the snow thinned near the bottom with rocks showing through, we switched to plunge-stepping. The snow here remained firm underneath.

At the very bottom of the gully, we postholed through a thin snow layer into the boulder field below - not ideal, but fortunately, it wasn’t a long section. Soon, we reconnected with the trail and reached the cars by 5 p.m.