Climb: Mt Maude-North Face and North East Couloir

Date of Climb: 3/22/2004

Trip Report:
Jason C. and I climbed and skied the North Face and the North East Couloir (North Face Ice Couloir in Beckey vol. 2) on Mt Maude, this last Monday and Tuesday. After a long boat ride Sunday morning up Lake Chelan and a quick, but extremely fortunate bus ride up to Holden Village we were skinning up Copper Creek. Spent Sunday night in upper Copper Creek.
Monday morning skinned up to Copper Creek Pass. Wow, what a spectacular view! Across Entiat Meadows loomed the large NE face of Maude. It was looking pretty intimidating from this vantage point. We could only see the lower portion of the North Face route, but the NE Couloir was in plain sight and was looking sweet. We skied corn snow down into Entiat Meadows and made camp near a moraine at ~9:30am. Removing all but climbing and skiing essentials from our packs we set off for the North Face shortly after 10. Skinning up the moraine towards the gullies we were treated to a show of continuous wet slides waterfalling down the steep East face of Seven Fingered Jack. A pretty impressive show.
We skinned up through the lower gullies, and up to ~7,400' where we strapped skis to the packs and donned crampons. Climbing was a breeze, punchy semi firm powder, with some nice small runnels which were nice and firm for climbing. We brought rope and pro but didn't use any of it. When the route turns left a little bit the snow got a bit deeper and made for some steep postholing up the final several hundred feet. Made the summit ~2:30, and were greeted by strong winds at the summit. And although the day had been crystal clear for the entire climb, some major clouds were blowing in from the west. A quick look around and we strapped into the skis and dropped in. Man was it sweet. Steep pow all the way down.
We made it into camp just in time for it to start raining and retreated to the tent for a long evening.
On Tuesday we didn't really have a plan set for what we were going to do. We eventually decided on the NE Couloir on Maude.
After another leisurely morning we left camp at 9:30. It was nice to have our skin track in from the day before, and after leaving the track and traversing below the NE face we were below the couloir. Pretty much the same story as the day before, although the the NE Couloir is a little steeper than the North Face, and the snow was a little punchier. Again crampons and axe were all that was needed.
On the summit strong winds again limited our stay, and what looked like a fairly decent storm system was looming to the west. The ski down the couloir was spectacular, a direct line all the way down the couloir, through the lower gullies and into camp....absolutely awesome.
That night it began snowing and blowing pretty hard, and in the morning continued to worsen, so we abandoned any hope of more climbing and skiing that day. We had initially planned on staying until Thursady, but bailed on Wednesday due to the weather.
An interesting skin back up to Copper Creek Pass, and it was all easy, but wet cruising back down to Holden. Somehow, we had managed to make it to Holden just as the bus was being loaded for the 12 mile trip down to Lucern, and the Lady Express back to Chelan.
~Ross
-in the pic the North Face is yellow, the NE Couloir is Red. Ski descents followed the climbing routes. Blue is where we descended the lower gullies to camp.


Gear Notes:
Brought gear, didn't use it.

Approach Notes:
Copper Creek from Holden Village

Here's a shot of Jason on the North Face.
~Ross

Wow.

Saweeeeeet! Nice TR and Pics!

Good job that looks like it was awesome. How do you guys keep getting perfect snow conditions for your sick descents!?

I was looking at the FD by the late Ben Manfredi (TR) and I hardly recognize it as the same mountain.

Hey do you have a photo w/out the lines so we can see the couloir?

Here's Jason climbing the NE Couloir
~Ross

Here's Maude from Copper Creek Pass

WOW!

Very nice!

I was wondering what you guys were going to do this week. Nice work. I always wanted to ski that north face couloir, but we never got back there again. Again, congrats. At least it wasn't another slog with 10 turns, eh? You have to head out with sky and I to get those...

I said, "God damn!" Way to nail to it, Ross! That's some superfly TNT! Conditions look like they were absolutely perfect! Sure beats our last trip, eh?

Ok, here's the link to some more pics....sorry they're not in any kind of order yet.
http://www.villagephotos.com/pubbrowse.asp?selected=829677
~Ross

hmm. that link shows the thumbnails, but I can't seem to get any of them to enlarge.
am I the only one who can't get it to work?

I can see the big pics - and they kick ass.

How steep do those routes get anyway?

Between 40 and 55 degrees. The couloir is the steeper route while the face maybe maxes out at 50 near the top. Both routes are somewhere around 2k top to bottom. Great stuff! I'm wayyy jealous, but who knows, this weekend is starting to look better, maybe I'll be less jealous monday.

Looks like a great time. Nice!

Right on. Never been around on that side of Maude though it looked good from peaking over the top. Definitely have to visit now.

Way to go! I've been looking for any info I can dig up about doing Fernow from holden in a day next summer, goig up Copper Creek. Did you happen to check out that line up the ridge from the headwaters of copper creek?

Blake, click here for a panorama of the east side of the Fernow Group as seen from nearby South Spectacle Butte. Fernow is in the middle of the right panel (and Copper Peak is the dark pyramid to its right). The Copper Creek Route to Fernow comes up to the saddle at right-center in the right panel. You can then pretty much see you have to stay to the south side of the East Ridge leading up to Fernow's summit. Expect Class 3 at the top.

Blake, are you just trying to do Fernow in a day or specifically do it in a day from Holden? If the former, it is definitely doable in a day from the phelps creek trailhead. I really enjoyed the hike up into leroy basin and up and over onto the miniglacier to fernow. It's a great peak in a neat area, definitely one I'd recommend.

Seven Fingered Jack on the other hand...