Anybody Climbed Mt. Garfield?

[JayB]

I don't know how I managed to overlook this series of peaks for so long, but while driving east on I-90 today I noticed a series of rocky peaks with some fairly massive slabs beneath them. As soon as I got home I opened up the atlas and the Beckey guide and identified the formation as Mt. Garfield.

 

Anyhow, after reading through Beckey's description of the mountain as a "hazardous enigma" and taking a look at the routes in the book I couldn't help but wonder why I had never heard anyone mention the peaks before. Seems like a series of peaks with fifth class alpine routes ranging between a grade III 5.5 (West Peak) and a grade V 5.11 that aren't too much further away from Seattle than Mt. Si should at least come up in conversations or on this board once in a while.

 

So what's the deal? It looks like a combination of loose rock and tough routefinding could well account for some of Garfield's lack of popularity, but is the rock THAT loose and the approach/descent THAT heinous? Just curious. Anyone been up there out there and taken a look for themselves and/or hit one of the routes? If so, please share some info and shed some light on the enigma of Mt. Garfield.

 

[ 05-27-2002, 12:42 AM: Message edited by: JayB ]

[JayB]

Well - I guess I should have searched first. Found a TR from Loren & Philfort for the standard route - sounds like an epic. Nicely done.

 

It also sounds as though there's a closure somewhere on the access road? Any more info on the state of the road and/or the routes themselves (especially) would still be appreciated. If I can get close enough by car I may head up there and bushwack to the base of the West Peak to take a look later on this week. It's supposedly a grade III 5.5 but reading Phil and Loren's TR seriously makes me wonder...

[klenke]

A little discussion about this occurred a few months back. See...

 

http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=002002