Horseshoe Peak/Standard

Aug 23, 2014
Private climb, did in one day via the lower basin route. Left Federal Way at 4am, Cascade Pass trailhead 7:15am, hiked over the pass and descended via the Stehekin trail to Horseshoe Basin trail, hiked up to the waterfalls above the abandoned mine. Find a route through the waterfalls to the right, some steep sections, but can find a way through, not too much brush. Should put markers or tape to find way back on descent, can be tricky. Then ascend open areas until hit vegetation line and some tough steep scree. Head for open basin below pillars, once in basin head to far west end, ascend loose sandy rock to ridge, scramble 10' up to the west, will see a broad horizontal bench, walk to end, should be cairn at end, drop around into next small gully, ascend to top, this is where the narrow catwalk to summit starts. We didn't rope up, able to walk out and then grabbed the rappel slings and aided over the final crux, 3:30pm on summit. Used full rope for rappel, short rope would not make gully. Descended route, took as long to get back down through the waterfalls as it did to ascend, we lost our route a bit, were too far east for awhile. Back to Cascade Pass at 9:20pm, car at 10:40pm, home at 2:30am. Estimated 18 miles and 8,000' gain. Longer, but no more elevation than doing the upper route from Sahale Glacier.