A definitional grepic on Buckner with some brutal routefinding, bushwacking, and veggie belays. After a 7am start in Basin Creek, we made it up into Horseshoe Basin before the sun fully hit the snow. Armed with the vague description from Jeff Smoot's 'Climbing Washington's Mountains', we tried in vain to find a bootpath leading up out of the basin to the east. Assume it was covered by the huge amount of snow in the basin; judging by the waterfall going under the snow I estimate it was at least 60-70 feet deep. We climbed a gully that looked like the best option out of the basin (it had a rusting cable in it), but it cliffed out and became totally impassible (we later saw this gully with the cable from above, it had a waterfall gushing down it). After a grim bushwack north, we emerged from the thicket and downclimbed to a point just south of the waterfall that drops into the basin. From here we scrambled up ledges on the south fringe of the drainage, but at the top were again thwarted by huge amounts of snow blocking the drainage with a fragile-looking snowbridge over another large waterfall that looked too sketchy. We searched for other options but everything cliffed out, so we downclimbed to a point about halfway up the edge of the drainage and decided to give it one last try with a scramble up another gully. After some questionable sections, we topped out on the rocky ridge above the waterfall snowbridge. Working our way along the ridge and after another small stream crossing (this is where we saw the cable again), our route once again devolved to a hell-wack.

Finally, 3 hours after leaving Horseshoe Basin, we reached the upper slopes and the snow. Buckner was still absurdly high above and summiting seemed improbable, but we just put on the crampons and started slogging. Snow the entire way up from 5400 ft or so, baking like an oven. Our trailrunner/Kahtoola combo worked well, and miraculously after infinite slogging we hit the summit ridge. A mountain goat looked on with mild interest as we scrambled up to the airy summit. Top summit view of my life? Can't think of one better. Washington's greatest hits of marquee peaks unfold in all directions: Baker, Shuksan, Redoubt, Glacier Peak, Goode, Forbidden, Bonanza, Rainier, and on and on. The Boston Glacier way below looked incredibly crevassed, and Lake Chelan was easily visible. Wish we could have stayed up there longer, but the prospect of the grim route back down loomed large. We glissaded at least 2000 ft vert, which sped things up a bit, but the way down lived up to its grimness. After more veggie belays than I'd like to admit, we finally made it back down to Horseshoe Basin and could finally relax and enjoy the hike back down the valley to camp. A 12-hour grepic. Left in awe of the burliness of the North Cascade peaks. It's a whole different level up here.