Man, what an awesome trip. Everything from the forest in the bottom of the Depot Creek Valley to the summit of Spickard was worth every ounce of effort. The forest just across the border is full of old-growth trees and traversed by a simple path, not the usual National Park superhighway. The falls are more incredible than I was ever led to believe. It's amazing they don't show on the map and aren't named. Someone should really get on with USGS and get them named...say Steven Falls. Prepare to get soaked crossing in the spray zone, it's really more like the dump-buckets-of-water zone. The 900' climb beside the falls is hot and up. On the way down it's hot and down.

We camped at Ouzel Lake the first night. We thought about doing Redoubt the next day, but were too wiped from the trip in. We opted instead to move camp to the col between Silver Lake and Depot Creek.

What an awesome place. Since we only moved camp that day (1600' of up) there was plenty of time to lounge on the rocks and nap. Plenty of running water nearby made the camp ideal.

The summit trip the next morning began with a darned cool morning and we hit the glacier directly out of camp. There were some tracks leading up a steep section of ice that we bypassed by traversing below and around to the east side of the glacier. We made it to the bergschrund pretty quickly with ever expanding views. The 'schrund was too wide and impassable for the likes of us. I led a short, loose, crappy rock section out of the 'schrund that took us to the ridge proper. Not really knowing what to expect rockwise, we left all the rock pro at home. It would have been nice to have a couple of pieces, though there really wasn't any way to protect the lower section due to the crappy, shattered rock. 5 pitches of 4th class took us to the summit proper.

We basked in the sun and enjoyed the view of the world according to the North Cascades. There was a note from Pete Schoening to Spickard in the summit register from 1998. Geez, I hope I'm up there at his age! The ridge was downclimbable for the most part, but we did make two short rappels, one of which took us right back to the schrund. Camp was only a short distance away from there.

After moving camp the next day, we napped, read, ate and avoided anything strenuous. Hey, it was stinking hot! The Redoubt Glacier was calving like mad high above Ouzel Lake and we had box seats for the show. Saw some huge sections come spraying over the cliffs.

The next morning we rounded the lake and headed up to the glacier. Everything was going swimmingly well and we were both thinking "Summit here we come!" After roping up, we crossed a short section of blue ice and headed up the totally benign looking slope leading up to the glacial plateau at 7200'. That's when my leg plummeted into a crevasse about 2-feet wide and plenty-feet deep. I probed around and immediately located another crack. I probed again and quickly located two more. At this point it became obvious that the "benign" slope was a mine field of crevasses. Being just two lowly climbers on this remote peak, we decided to turn back and call it good.

Thinking next time about going in Depot Creek and heading out Hannegan Pass. Boy, what a great traverse that would be. Spickard is a classic NW climb: remote (didn't see anyone for 5 days); beautiful old-growth at the start; north glacier; exposed, rocky ridge; spectacular summit views. I say, "Go forth and climb Spickard."