Pacific Peak

Route: North Col
Posted On: 6/10/2021, By: blazintoes
Info: Parked at Spruce Ck. Biked to Mohawk Lakes TH. By 0200 started hiking and found the upper tarns difficult to navigate d/t softening snow. Made it to the Col later than I wanted but it's only 800' vertical so blasted up and the Col conditions felt like over ripened avocado mush. Kinda scary. Topped out at noon and it was very warm. Too chicken to glissade so screed down the northeast face and posthole hell back to the waterfall. This years snowpack is the most difficult I've experienced and hard to predict what's good. With as warm as it's been I'd say couloir season is over. Kinda lame. Sorry for late post. 

Route: Via Atlantic
Posted On: 1/27/2021, By: Sbenfield
Info: Up Atlantic first via West Ridge then over to Pacific & back. We used Snowshoes to gain Atlantic's ridge & were careful to stick by low angled tree areas until the ridge. We were happy to have axe & crampons after b/c of one or two tricky spots along the ridge. Route over to Pacific was pretty nice! Re summited Atlantic on the way down. Great day! 

Route: East Slopes
Posted On: 10/6/2020, By: Mojokram17
Info: A friend and I climbed up to Pacific Tarn today (had no interest in summiting honestly, just wanted to say we did the highest lake in the US) and we used this route as our guide for the most part. Everything up through Mohawk lakes to the end of the numbered lakes (I believe there are 7 lakes past Upper Mohawk, not sure) is class 1. The crux of the route is decently steep, but it is crazy loose. There were maybe 50 yards of snow towards the top of the gully clinging to the steepest parts, but all snow was avoidable and there was a decent route through the gully up to where the slope eases. We ended up going up a small chimney of more stable rock about 2/3 of the way up the gully because of how loose it was. Definitely be prepared for a high class 2/low class 3 climb up some nasty talus/scree for around 800 feet. Class 3 can be avoided but honestly it felt much nicer to go up a class 3 chimney than the class 2 talus/scree. Great views and a solid climb. 

Route: West Ridge
Posted On: 10/4/2020, By: MountainBuhn
Info: Extremely fun route but far more loose than we were expecting. Some of the chimney cruxes were really loose. Really make sure to check your holds before make any move. Crazy exposure as well, but luckily the highly exposed “knife-edges” were a bit more solid. Long, strenuous 1,000 feet of straight class 3. Only a few areas where it relented. Way down Atlantic was loose, but low class 2. 

Route: West Ridge
Posted On: 9/13/2020, By: wintersage
Info: Dry trail up to the ridge, ridge has a dusting of snow which is mostly accumulated on the climber's left side. Overall, the snow made the rocks a little slippery but I didn't need to use my microspikes which I brought with me. I descended via Atlantic's West Ridge which also had a sprinkling of snow. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 8/17/2020, By: Hannah5280
Info: Conditions were dry, did not encounter snow on the East Ridge Route at all and we had zero precipitation the entire day. 

Route: East Slopes
Posted On: 7/30/2020, By: arianna2
Info: Still a lot of steep snow on the route. We didnt have our axes and we had dogs so we went around it. Went over to the left side where there is some stable big talus but pretty loose in areas. I stayed on the snow along the side if it wasn't too steep because it seemed pretty safe with spikes. Went to the talus when it was steeper. Had to go down the talus though for the most part. Someone glissaded the whole thing. We did just the last parts where we could control it. Some safe glissading still up by pacific tarn which helped get off talus too. Challenging climb, agree with difficult class 2. 

Route: Southeast Slopes
Posted On: 7/24/2020, By: dlintz
Info: Did Southeast Slopes today to summit Atlantic and Pacific. Planned to follow a right angling path through the upper left (south) side of the headwall snowfield, but up close it didn't look doable for trail runners and poles. We opted for the loose scree gully to the left of the snow. This was very unpleasant except for the more solid rock in the white band. Easy to avoid the remaining snow above the saddle for either peak. Glissaded the upper snowfield on Pacific and also the headwall with just poles, no axes. 

Route: Southeast Slopes
Posted On: 7/19/2020, By: flagship47
Info: dry conditions all the way until you reach about 13000, then the standard route has a snowfield blocking it. Estimate it will be several weeks before this is melted out. Tried to climb near light colored rock band to the south and quickly became a Class 3 exposed hike. Scree field to the SW of the route may be the only way to go right now without crampons/ice axe. 

Route: West Ridge
Posted On: 7/12/2020, By: bangerth
Info: Perfect conditions all the way up. The only spot that isn't dry are the willows in the valley when you leave the road at the mine and make your way over to the gap between Atlantic's West Ridge and Mayflower Hill. Otherwise dry all the way to the top, as well as when going over to Atlantic. 

Route: East Ridge
Posted On: 7/6/2020, By: jmctigue
Info: Excellent, fun scramble. Rock was pretty stable. The crossing from Pacific to Atlantic was straightforward. Someone ahead of me continued along the ridge to Fletcher Mountain. Start early if you want to do this - weather started coming in at 11.30am, and a thunder/hailstorm hit around noon. I descended to the saddle between Pacific and Atlantic, and was able to descend quickly by glissading down a couple of snowfields. Route-finding down to the 'lower lake' in McCullough Gulch was a little tricky with snowfields, streams, small waterfalls, and willows to negotiate. I stayed on the north side of the gulch - starting at the lake marked 12,695 on the topo I pretty much linked up the small lakes shown on the map until reaching the lower lake. This allowed me to walk on rock most of the way, whereas it looked like there were more willows and snowfields on the suggested route. Photo 1: Fletcher Mountain Photo 2: Pacific Peak Photo 3: Looking across to Atlantic from Pacific Photo 4: Pacific's east ridge from the summit Photo 5: Pacific from Atlantic Photo 6: Typical view in McCullough Gulch 

Route: Southeast Slopes
Posted On: 7/6/2020, By: craftymatt
Info: Snowfields above 12,600', but generally on relatively flat ground so not too bad to cross. Can zigzag your roue to minimize your time postholing (snow was pretty soft by mid-morning). The headwall/"crux" was completely snow covered and we didn't feel comfortable attempting it with only microspikes, so we went up the nasty/loose couloir to the left. The Atlantic/Pacific saddle is basically snow free (some still lingering on Atlantic's northeast face) and both peaks can be ascended from there 100% on dry ground. 

Route: West Ridge
Posted On: 6/21/2020, By: little_castaldo
Info: A couple snowfields early in the basin; solid in the morning, but postholing 3+ft on the way down (but maybe 10 minutes max, no need for snowshoes). No snow on the ridge or summit; ridge was FANTASTIC solid class 3 fun with maybe a class 4 option if you want it. We made the ridge a little more spicy than it needed to be because it felt solid and comfortable. A new favorite for sure :) 4WD drive to Boston mines is open; road was easy/moderate for a stock jeep wrangler. Descended via traverse to Atlantic. 

Route: West Ridge
Posted On: 6/27/2020, By: tcphoto87
Info: Late adding this report, but hiked up the Class 3 west ridge of Pacific, across to Atlantic and down the ridge back to mayflower gulch. Found out after starting the gate was open (a first for me) but we hiked up it anyway. I want to say it ended up being around 13 miles round trip but both my apple watch and the Cotrex app I use to track decided to stop recording at various points so I don't have an accurate number. The road was all melted with muddy spots, at the cabins bashing through the willows was less than fun. We couldn't find a trail so did our best to just head up without going too high toward Atlantics ridge. A few snowfields to cross up there before arriving at the west ridge of Pacific, the ridge itself was all dry. There was a minor dusting of snow the night before but it had all melted off Pacifics ridge. It was super easy to lose the trail, after the prominent point we passed on the left there were a few areas we had no idea which way to go cause the route info didn't mention the areas in question. Pacific itself was pretty dry, Pacific Tarn was still covered in snow. The ridge to Atlantic was basically all dry, you could easily avoid the snow on the east sides of the saddle. A lot more snow on top of Atlantic, and crossing that cornice on the way down was hair raising lol. Super fun day though! Also-it won't let me upload my good camera photos anymore, and my phone pics it wont upload either except for 2 which it made super small? Not sure what I'm missing. 

Route: West Ridge
Posted On: 6/14/2020, By: Will_E
Info: Summitted Pacific and Atlantic peaks today via the west ridge from McCullough gulch. Most of the snow is easily avoidable, I took ice axe and micro spikes with, but used neither. Went up west ridge of Pacific (really fun route), across ridge to Atlantic, then descended Atlantic's west ridge.