want beta: entiat mountains

[JoshK]

two questions...

 

1.)Anybody done a traverse of maude, 7FJ and Fernow? If so, I'm curious what type of climbing you encountered, the route you used, etc. etc.

 

2.)Anybody climbed the entiat ice fall? If so, what type of climbing are we talking about here. All I can find is it described as "50 degree snow and ice." If you climbed it, would you have felt comfortable soloing it? What about objective dangers?

 

[Stephen_Ramsey]

I'm not sure if this is useful at all (since you're asking about a three-mountain traverse), but here is a trip report from a recent traverse of Maude (up via the north face, down via west-facing gullys).

 

http://www.speakeasy.net/~sramsey/climbing/triplog/200306-maude

 

Conditions on the north face were great; on the traverse from the Col to the north face, not so great.

 

-Steve

[Freeman]

Josh, I've done all three but never as a traverse. I don't see that it would be easy to descend from Maude to the Maude- Jack col and from Jack to Fernow - but maybe it would go. Fernow is a fair distance from Jack - we went in via Copper Creek when we climbed it.

 

I have done the complete Entiat Ice Fall from Ice Lakes (as well as the complete N face from the bottom). We belayed sections of the broken glacier but the crux was climbing out of the overhanging 'scrund at the start. Because of the late hour we elected to not finish the ridge scramble to the summit but descended back to Ice Lakes from the top of the glacier - big mistake. We probably wasted more time on loose exposed slabby downclimbing than going on to the summit.

 

My feeling about the Ice Fall is that it is one of the really fun late season alpine ice climbs and yes, I would solo it if I did it again. If you link them all let us know.

[dberdinka]

Heres a link to a write-up I did on the Entiat Icefall. I soloed it, but I guess thats a personal choice. The low 5th rock was more intimidating than the snow and ice.

 

I recall the summit register having an entry by a guy who enchained the three peaks in a day. I don't recall what route he used. Have fun!

 

http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~berdind/alpine/maude/frame.html

[Norman_Clyde]

I wondered if anyone had gone for all 3 of these in a day. Those in the know told me that Fernow is too far north of the other two, plus the col between is too low, too far to descend, etc. etc. But see, it can be done!

[Stefan]

I have done Maude and 7FJ in a day from the trailhead. Doing these two peaks in a day is doable—however combining all three in one day would be a significant feat. I recommend on day one make camp at Leroy Basin and climb Maude. Day two go up 7FJ and then follow the route description for the SW that Beckey says for Fernow. Fernow is 5 hours from Leroy Basin. Staying on the ridge proper of 7FJ towards Mt. Fernow would be very time consuming and tedious. All three are definitely doable in two days depending on the routes you take.

[klenke]

I really seriously doubt (like am 95% sure) that NO ONE has done Maude, 7FJ, and Fernow in one day (less than 24 hours). Maude and 7FJ can definitely both be done in the same day--especially from a camp in Leroy Creek Basin. But Fernow is a loooong way over. On the map, it doesn't look that far north of 7FJ, but, trust me, it is.

 

As for traversing over to Fernow from 7FJ, ha ha ha ha. Note the name of the mountain: Seven Fingered Jack. The summit is, as far as I recall, about the third finger (middle finger?). There are at least three more fingers leading off toward Fernow on the ridge crest. All of these are extremely precipitous and would require much rope work to traverse. The east and west sides of these crest crags are steep. When I climbed Fernow from the Leroy Creek/Phelps Creek junction in one looong day, I went up over the saddle left of 7FJ, dropped down into the Big Creek drainage, and contoured the basin toward the prominent snowfield coming down out of the Fernow/7FJ saddle. There is a small glacier you skirt in the drainage. It is not a problem because it is out of your way. From the saddle it is class 3 scrambling on ledges, mostly on the east or southeast side of the summit massif.

 

All in all, it would be much easier to descend westward off of 7FJ down gullies in the cliffband to the saddle above Leroy Creek Basin then climb over to Fernow by the way I just described.

 

Here's the way I would do this trio (quatro) of peaks:

1. Day 0: Leave Seattle later in the day so that you can get to Leroy Creek Basin camp by near the end of the day. It will take about 4 hours to get to camp.

2. Day 1: Climb Maude and 7FJ. You could do these in either order. By doing a high traverse between the two, you can avoid some elevation loss back to the basin. 7FJ is climbed via the easy upper west slopes (talus and boulders with some scree gullies). Note that the North Ridge of Maude is craggy so traversing low below its west flank will be tedious, but it is doable (this is the way I climbed it). Alternately, you could drop down through the saddle north of Maude in order to complete that mountain via the North Face.

3. Day 2: Go for Fernow by the head of Big Creek. Look across the valley at a nice waterfall plunging down from the lake between Dumbell and Greenwood Mountains. If you have extra time, try and climb Copper Peak on the continuing ridge north of Fernow. The key word here is probably "try." Copper is a mean mountain. It's much more noticeable from Railroad Creek and the town of Holden.

4. Day 3: Hike out.

Alternate order: by doing 7FJ and Fernow on Day 1 (requires an extra three hours and would obviously mean Copper Peak is out of the question), you could probably do Maude on Day 2 and get out on the same day. This option also could allow you to do a carryover to Maude and then run the ridge southward to Carne Mountain in order to get back to the car in a loop. I like loop trips. There used to be a trail on that ridge. Might be pretty abandoned looking, though.

 

[tread_tramp]

This trip was not in one day but done solo and the trip report is detailed. go to: ericsbasecamp.net/trips/EntiatMtns/EntiatMtns.htm

Edited June 28, 2003 by tread_tramp

[tread_tramp]

let's try this one: http://www.ericsbasecamp.net/trips/EntiatMtns/EntiatMtns.htm This report has some good photos with it.