Ascent of Russian Butte on 2020-08-12| Date: | Wednesday, August 12, 2020 | | Ascent Type: | Successful Summit Attained | | Peak: | Russian Butte | | Location: | USA-Washington | | Elevation: | 5123 ft / 1561 m |
Ascent Trip ReportCrossing the middle fork was an easy undertaking and the water was just slightly above the knees.
The Pratt river trail (described as nearly abandoned in some trip reports) was in great shape.
It's not obvious where to leave the trail; our route down to the river was definitely better than the route up, but with slightly more bushwhacking.
Crossing the Pratt river was also pretty easy, to the point that we were able to do it without removing our shoes.
The way up the west slope was way easier than I expected. Vegetation was not thick and the route is consistently steep. There was one annoying part after the first boulder field we encountered and consisted in 45/50 degree dirt with good plants to aid on.
We ascended a gully to reach the south ridge of the mountain. This proved to be sketchy 4th class which I really did not want to downclimb. You do not want to even attempt that route if conditions aren't completely dry.
The summit register shows only very few parties every year. Unfortunately, there was a complete whiteout and absolutely no view.
We decided to avoid the sketchy rock and descend the north side. While that wasn't technically challenging, that was some real steep dirt which I would not recommend doing on the way up (yep, I'd take again the sketchy 4th class rather than that infernally steep dirt).
Overall a beautiful mountain. Took little more than 9 hours car-to-car, which proved to be significantly shorter than traversing from Revolution. |
| Summary Total Data | | Total Elevation Gain: | 4209 ft / 1282 m | | Ascent Statistics | | Gain on way in: | 4209 ft / 1282 m | | Distance: | 11.8 mi / 19 km | | Route: | East Slope | | Start Trailhead: | 914 ft / 278 m | | Descent Statistics | GPS Data for Ascent/Trip
 GPS Waypoints - Hover or click to see name and lat/long
Peaks:  climbed and  unclimbed by Luca Baradel
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Note: GPS Tracks may not be accurate, and may not show the best route. Do not follow this route blindly. Conditions change frequently. Use of a GPS unit in the outdoors, even with a pre-loaded track, is no substitute for experience and good judgment. Peakbagger.com accepts NO responsibility or liability from use of this data.
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