Earl Peak 5.12.09

Well let's try this again,






I had hoped to do something on the Home Court 100 but with the terrible weather forecast I thought better of it. When the weather turns poor Teanaway is usually a safe bet. With the access opening up the problem was, what to do? I am running out of options so I thought I would clean up some of my remaining victims on a loop trip.

I had the whole day so I was confident of success. Sleep came very fitfully so I let myself sleep an extra 2 hours thinking I would still have plenty of time. I managed to get out the door quickly and was dumbstruck by the "chains required" sign on I-90. WTF isn't it the middle of May? As I made my way up the pass the chains required was relaxed and I started to again feel hopeful. That was short lived when all traffic was stopped to clear an accident. There went another 30 minutes. Undaunted I pushed on. The North Fork Teanaway road is mostly free of snow to the Beverly Creek Trailhead. I would be wary of the many sneaky washouts that are not seen until it is too late. At the trailhead I was greeted with this scene:


I layered up and was off. The first crossing of Bean Creek went well and the area that the trail goes along the creek was well travelled making it less troublesome. The last time I was on this trail I had to break out the ice axe for this portion to ensure not falling steeply into the creek. Soon I was on solid snow that for the most part held my weight. Always with a nice surprise posthole once in a while. Once I reached the basin I needed to again cross Bean Creek. I found a reasonable spot to drop to the creek and only had a small issue with making it up the other side. Tanner was able to make it up on his own but the Beagle wasn't so fortunate. This ended up being the crux of the day. I had to lay on my stomach with my toes kicked in the slope as far as I could so that I could hang upside down just enough to get his collar and hoist him up. It was more than a little unnerving to hang there knowing if my plan didn't work I was going to fall head first into the frigid water. Once on the other side I put on the snow shoes and aimed for the open areas above me. The views opened up and I thankfully snapped some pictures.


I was able to see a nice snow filled gully going my way so I aimed for it. The gully was a reasonable pitch and the snow was stable and I was able to lose the snowshoes and just kick step my way up. After about 600' of climb I left the gully for a more direct line to my summit. The snow was much harder here and I contemplated swithching to crampons which I thankfully had remebered to bring. I reached the ridge around 6400' and was greeted with some blustery winds and blowing snow. It was fierce enough to give some thought of turning back. I decided to push on. I crested a false summit at 6800' and so Earl easily attainable in front of me. I thankfully reached the summit and wasn't able to find a summit register. I was too cold to fumble through my pack so I snapped some pictures with my phone:


From the summit the basin looked very attainable below me. I was almost seduced by the endless untracked snow of the basin but relented and returned. I had been worried about the steepish descent so I angled to the saddle where the summer trail passes and descended from there. The angle was much less severe and the snow was receptive for descending. Once I reached the gully I glissaded to it's bottom.

The weather settled for the rest of the way and I thankfully was able to soak up some sun. Although Earl is a popular summit it was much more difficult with the day's conditions. It seemed much more of a Winter's climb than a Spring one.




Approx 8 miles 3500' of climb 5:45 car to car

Lumiere Ridge 4.21.09

With Steven's Pass Ski area recently closing for the season I did my usual pilgrimage to the ski slopes. Since I have climbed all the peaks surrounding the ski runs I was going to have to get creative. I parked at the trailhead for the PCT and quickly changed to snowshoes. I could see that trying to follow the PCT was not going to work so I traversed to the ski runs and gave up some elevation and dropped to the ski run that would take my directly to the saddle between Big Chief and Cowboy. Not knowing how far I would stay on the runs I left the snowshoes on. I did see a few prints going my way. The sun was beating down on me and was quite warm as I easily made my way to the saddle. Once at the saddle I could see my objective a long ways off. I had plenty of concern about avalanche danger with the warm unbroken sun. I was surprised to see about 20 snowmobilers in the Mill Creek Basin. Since most of them were highmarking every available hillside without provoking any slides, I felt more comfortable. I quickly dropped in the basin below and followed the snowmobilers tracks as far as I could before I began a traverse at 4600'. I followed an old ski track which worked. I decided that the slope above me looked suspect so I dropped to around 4400' to give myself an extra cushion. I rejoined the snowmobilers track greatly increasing my speed. I met a big group at Lake Susan Jane. They were going up the steep gully just to the SW. I would have liked to use this gully because it was a more direct line. Not wanting to get run over or have any issues with the dogs I crossed over the frozen lake and followed roughly the PCT. In the gully I did see a couple small avalanches come slowly down the slope.Once in the basin above I dropped pack and pushed for the ridge. There were plenty of snowmobilers tracks to follow so the going was straightforward. I reached the ridge just South of the summit and started to make my way to the summit. The ridge was heavily corniced and they were full sun resulting in a steady stream of water coming off of them. This seemed to me a dangerous situation that didn't warrant continuing. I gave some thought to traversing underneath them and decided against that. I slow motion glissaded back to my pack. I had a quick bite and retraced my steps back. When I reached the point where I had decided to drop lower I was dismayed to find a larger avalanche that had crossed my path. Feeling lucky I pushed on to the dreaded climb out of the basin. I took off the snowshoes and booted the remainder. I was hoping to speed up the descent back to the car by glissading but wasn't able to get much speed up due to the soft snow and low angle descent.




Approx 8 miles 3100' of climb 5:30 car to car

Cascade Lookout 4.07.09

After changing plans last week mid stream I thought with only a half day for climbing a return visit was in order. I haven't been blessed with good weaher of late so with the stellar weather predicted I was eager to head out. I couldn't believe how warm it was already at 1030 so I gladly changed my lenses to the darkest I have and slathered up the sunblock. I however should have been paying closer attention to where and more importantly where I hadn't applied the sunscreen. In my haste I managed to miss my entire left calf which I am now paying the price for. I wasn't enthused with the long road walk to the first 4 way intersection so I decided to take a more direct approach. I was surprised that there was another car parked at the gate. I hoped I might cross paths but the best I could do was to see them above me for a short while. I think they were out for a mountain bike ride. I only went a short ways on the main line before taking the first right. I followed the good road until it split where I followed the left branch. This branch ends shortly and it was into the clearcut. The going wasn't too bad and soon I found myself on the road above me only a short ways to rejoin my route from last week. I figured I halved the mileage from last week saving much needed time. From there I followed my prints form last week and instead of leaving the road I stayed on it climbing steadily to point 3087'. The snow was very wet and heavy but I kept the legs churning. From 3087' I descended the road below and crossed Deep Creek. I dropped pack and headed up. The snow was a little firmer making for an easier than expected ascent. I topped out on point 3600' which provided some great views of Phelps, Goat, Mclain and both Dog and Morpheus mountains. The only thing that I couldn't see was the lookout that I had hoped to find. I had expected to be able to see it from this vantage. I now was running low on time and since the lookout was at a slightly higher elevation I descended to a road that climbed to the North. The road headed to a heavily treed area which in mind wouldn't make for a good location for a lookout. Thoroughly confused I followed the road until it started to descend. I left the road and wound my way through the densely treed area until I reached what seemed to me like the highest point of the surrounding area. I certainly didn't see a lookout in the maze of trees. With the end of my allotted time I headed back. On the way down I stopped for short time to look at the long single track of my ascent. I always enjoy the sight on the long unbroken track of my hard work. The descent seemed to drag on until I was able to take off the snowshoes. Once the snowshoes were off the pace seemed to quicken until I reached the clearcut. Here I slowed the pace to avoid any chance for a unpleasant fall.




Approx 12 miles 2800' of climb 6 hours car to car

Devil Slide 6 3.31.09

With the heavy snows in the mountains I knew getting over the passes would be dicey and with the heightened avy conditions I thought it best to stay low. I parked at the last yellow gate before the Wagner Bridge. The weather was frightful. It was blowing 30+mph with horizontal hail. I gave some thought about bagging the day. I waited 15 minutes and the weather calmed. I layered up and was off. I was hoping to walk the road until the 4 way intersection at around 1300'. The intent was to use the network of logging roads to reach the old Cascade Lookout. I had read a great report from Beave warning against heading North at the intersection. Apparently there is a major landslide on the Deep Creek Road that makes it impassable. I instead headed right and began climbing. There wasn't much snow so it went quickly. Just before 1800' I took the right junction and hit substantial snow. I also noticed that I could see the car in the distance. With the recent clearcut I banked the idea for the descent cutting off some serious mileage. The snow increased quickly so I put on snowshoes. The snow was deep and heavy greatly slowing progress. Since the going was so slow I decided to enter the forest where the snow was much more manageable. This worked great with the exception of realizing that I had forgotten my phone at home. This was a problem because I load my maps into the phone. So now I was flying with limited vision. After a few hundred feet of climb I reached another road. I followed to the right until I was dismayed to find a dead end. I retraced my steps to another junction where I headed North. The weather now had redoubled it's effort to make my day miserable. I could see high above me what appeared to be another road which I surmised could be helpful. I was confident that I could scale the steep clearcut but with the weather strengthening I decided that it wasn't prudent to continue. In retrospect I should just have waited another 15 minutes because the weather again improved. Since I could see Devil's Slide 6 to the West I decided to forgo my up route and just follow my new road to the Deep Creek Road. This went quickly and I soon found myself back at original 4-way intersection. Here I went West and soon crossed Deep Creek. Just after crossing Deep Creek there was a spur road heading North. At this intersection I jumped off road and made my way up the clearcut. The going was great for a clearcut making a quick ascent to the road above me. I followed the road and descended the saddle beneath DS 6. I was surprised to see a set of footprints in the deeper snow. From the saddle I again left the road for the clearcut and easily made it to the summit 2000' 560'P. The views were limited to the area bumps which I documented for future trips. For the descent I decided to follow the main road back to the valley below. The initial portion headed my direction but further down it switchbacked North which I had hoped to avoid. I left the road intending on using the clearcut to access the road that I was sure that was below me. Too bad for me that the road passed on the West side of Black Lake not the East Side that I thought I had remebered from an earlier trip. I soon realized that I was stymied so back up the clearcut I went. Thankfully I reached the road above me again. I reached another junction where I headed South. The road passes directly next to the lake where I spied some areas that would allow some fishing. The road deadends at the outlet stream. Thankfully I could see the continuation of the road on the other side so I forded the creek and was back on track. After climbing the road crests and heads back to the original 4 way intersection. I had to laugh to myself when I realized that during the day I had used all four branches of the intersection. I picked up the pace for the remainder and just beat the rain back to the car.




Approx 12 miles 2200' of climb 5:30 car to car