JoshK Posted October 28, 2003 Posted October 28, 2003 I wanted to do this on sunday, but plans (ok, fine, laziness) kept me from that plan. With a chance to skip work on Monday my motivation was greater. This had always looked like a beautiful area and I'd always wanted to do this hike. The 1570 forest road is passable, albiet rough. I imagine it would be a challange with a standard clearance car. The book mentioned it may be possible to drive to the road end with a 4x4. I'm not sure how long ago that was true because about 2 miles from the end the road basically disppears into a washout. You *might* be able to get across with Gravedigger or Bigfoot, but even that might be pushing it. After that there are a few places where the road looks just fine and others where it's about as narrow and overgrown as a trial. It appears that the road hasn't been drivable here in some time. The climbers trail is easy to find and quite steep. I didn't have much trouble following it. At the 4800 foot saddle I made a navigation (or rather, lack thereof) error and started up the wrong high point. This was my first sign that not sleeping at all was affecting me. The scrambles book I found the route in described the way from the 4800 foot saddle to cyclone lake as 2 miles. Maybe it was because I was tired, but it certainly seemed a hellavu lot further than that. It also goes up and down and up and down so this probably has a lot to do with it. The views of snowking and multcher, or whatever it's called, from the high point above cyclone lake are really nice. This was about the last of the views I was going to get for the day. The cascade pass area to the north was quickly clouding over. I treated some water at cyclone lake and then headed around to get on the east ridge. My original plan wsa just to climb straight up the relatively straight forward glacier, but I decided to start out on the ridge first and check out the glacier first hand. By the time I reached the eastern toe of the glacier on the ridge, I decided I wsa staying the hell off the glacier. I had already punched through lightly snow covered holes enough just walking over the rock ridge. There were places where drifts were knee deep and because it was so variable, it was hard to tell what was solid. I figured whiel this was just annoying on the rock, it would be downright stupid to go experience this fun on the glacier. It started to rain mid-way up the ridge. The last of the fews disappeared and I could now see about 200 feet max. My distincly non-waterproof outfit and boots were now sponges. The last 1000 feet to the summit were hell. By not sleeping I had turned an easy scramble into what felt like the summit ridge of everest to me. Despite the fact that the summit was windy and wet, it seemed like a great place to take a nap. The way down was about a million times more exciting, because now the slabby ridge, the heather traverse, the brush and the steep ass, root covered climbers trail were all soaking wet. oh well, you can only get so wet before it doesn't matter anyway. At least I didn't feel the need to avoid all the muddy puddles in my way any more. Summary: this was a really cool area and I'm glad I finally hiked up this one. I'm sorry I missed what I've heard are some of the best views in the cascades. All and all, this would have been a very pleasent day trip with some sleep the night before and better weather. As it was, the trip had some extra character and certainly a great sense of solitude. Quote
ivan Posted October 28, 2003 Posted October 28, 2003 i always approve of skipping work in pursuit of meaningless thrills on the fleeting edge of babylon Quote
JoshK Posted October 28, 2003 Author Posted October 28, 2003 ivan said: i always approve of skipping work in pursuit of meaningless thrills on the fleeting edge of babylon Wow, that's quite a coincidence...when I finally pulled up the car soaked and pissed off Jimmy Cliff's "Rivers of Babylon" was playing on my MP3 player. Quote
Tod Posted October 28, 2003 Posted October 28, 2003 March 2001 the road was open all the way. When I went back in April of 2002 the road was washed out like you mentioned. That's a great ski tour in early spring.... Quote
catbirdseat Posted October 28, 2003 Posted October 28, 2003 Hey, you got out, so good on yer mate! Quote
To_The_Top Posted October 28, 2003 Posted October 28, 2003 I think you are right about that first couple of miles, it seemed longer. Was there during all the fires, and the views were nice, except for the smoke. Quote
rock-ice Posted October 28, 2003 Posted October 28, 2003 You mentioned you were fighting through quite a few drifts, was it bad enough you would have brought snowshoes for just that portion? Quote
JoshK Posted October 29, 2003 Author Posted October 29, 2003 rock-ice said: You mentioned you were fighting through quite a few drifts, was it bad enough you would have brought snowshoes for just that portion? No, not at all. They would have been worthless. by "drifts" i just meant places where wind blown snow had accumulated in cracks between old snow and rock, etc. Up high it was enough that it could have possibly obscured a crevasse, but it didn't slow travel at all. Quote
Ursa_Eagle Posted October 29, 2003 Posted October 29, 2003 Nice! I did Snowking back over Labor Day as a two-day climb (the lakes are one of the best campsites I've had yet), and enjoyed it thoroughly. That was during the fires, so the views to east (and thus the peaks the Ptarmigan Traverse) were few and far between. Here's to skipping work to climb! Quote
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