[TR] Big Four Mountain- Dry Creek (Avalanche Alley!) 4/25/2004

[klenke]

Climb: Big Four Mountain-Dry Creek (Avalanche Alley!)

 

Date of Climb: 4/25/2004

 

Trip Report:

Here is a "least-tagged summit" candidate for you: Big Four Mountain (6,160 ft). A register placed on the summit in 1993 has only seen about 20 parties sign it since then (meaning it only sees a couple of ascents per year). This dearth of summiters might be considered odd given the peak's deserved fame.

 

On Sunday, April 25, myself (Paul Klenke), Stefan Feller, Greg Koenig, and Juan Lira climbed Big Four Mountain via the "standard" Dry Creek Route. "Standard" does not imply "not difficult." It implies only "least difficult." This was a long route with much happening. Suffice it to say we summited. We were the first party this year. I think the previous party summited last May.

 

Long Version: (because I didn't know it would be this long when I started this trip report)

As per other notes and Beckey's guide, we parked at milepost 27 on Mountain Loop Highway (this is where the river veers close to the road for a stretch about 1.5 miles NE of Big Four's summit). It appears the old log across the Stillaguamish River is now gone. However, fortuitously, there was a new log across the river. This log is located straight downhill from the road about 60 paces uphill (east) of MP-27. The log crossing was exciting. The fat (base) end was on the north (road) side and was about 14 inches in diameter. It is fairly close to water level all the way across. Ordinarily, you could walk this log. But that would be risky, for the water is about 15 feet deep below it. If you fell in, it would be uggglleea-a-uggla [girgle noises as you fail to touch bottom; have you ever fallen off a windsurfing board in deep water? well, it would be like that.]. This meant that we had to cross it first on our butts, then later on our knees, then later, once use of balance poles was allowed in the creek, on our feet.

 

On the south side of the creek there is tagging everywhere. It makes it quite easy to follow the route to Dry Creek basin and the start of the route. The brush in the underforest is pretty much non-existent (BW1 max). We arrived at the basin in less than 50 minutes from the car. The lower basin has been inundated at its center by a large avalanche debris pile. We walked up this debris to a toe of rock coming down from the right. Behind this toe we followed a wide gully (canyon) around and back to the right. When this petered out right of a waterfall, we crossed over right (north) to the next gully over. This gully was wide at first but got much narrower. It essentially leads up east toward the towers (of the Tower Route; i.e., B4's NE Ridge). It may very well be the case that this gully cannot be climbed in late season once the snow has gone. For us it was snow all the way. We spotted a pretty nice looking rope hanging off the slopy rock on the right. Juan took a look at it and it might have become booty had he been able to pull it out of the snow (it was sealed in the snow pretty good; who knows how long the rope had been there).

 

So here's where the fun really began. At the apex of this gully where it finally opens up to the rock wall below the towers we took a break. We were following other tracks to this point. The tracks began to traverse left (as the route intends) to get to the prominent couloir on B4's SE side. We followed those tracks. As we began heading out, Greg comments that whoever made the tracks was pretty stupid for traversing right below a bunch of large snow blocks perched precariously on a slab above. The boot path crossed only about 400 feet underneath these! No time to react if a block or two should let loose. Well, we got to the base of the couloir about 10 minutes past the blocks and what should happen? Rumble rumble rumble! Our tracks were obliterated. Phew! That was close.

 

The couloir's angle is about 30 degrees. At about halfway (c. 4,800 ft), there were rock outcrops in the center. This forced us up and right around them. I tried my own path through the rock outcrops but got stymied. A funky class-4 scramble with downsloping rock (no positive holds) on the left and steep snow on the right was not what I had in mind but it had to be done. I finished off that butt-clencher stuff first then cut right and rejoined my partners. Two more sketchy traverses on suspect snow/rock got us to the upper couloir where it opens up into a sort of basin (c. 5,500 ft). What to do, what to do? The head of the couloir was hemmed in on all sides (the north face of the south peak [Pt. 6040+] is quite a sight to behold!). The tracks we had been following disappeared about halfway up the couloir. Whoever it was, maybe they witnessed an avalanche and high-tailed it out of there.

 

The normal route goes to the notch at far left but it looked hella slabby with a steep snowfinger leading up to the slabs. It looked improbable from our vantage so we looked right. On the right (north) side of the basin there was what looked to be class 3-4 scrambly rock with snow patches and fingers. Could we find a route up through that mess? Such a route looked doable...from a distance. Juan led out and the rest of us followed. We got to an impasse a few hundred feet up. A steep snow traverse with zero run out gave us consternation. What do to? While the others waited below, I took the 60m rope we had with us and went to take a look farther up the face. I scrambled (free climbed) two rope lengths on class 4/5.loose rock to a tree. I could see the route would go but it would entail more class 5. Our dearth of pro (we only had pickets and runners) and the fact that two of the four of us were wearing plastic boots meant that it was a no-go. (Later I would discover that my high position by the tree was really close to the true summit yet so far.) We decided to climb the snowfinger on the left side of the basin thence the steep slabby red rock to the notch.

 

As I rappeled back down to snow, the other three got to the snowfinger and commenced climbing it. From my vantage about 500 yards away they looked like spiders on a wall. Could it be that steep, I asked? They stalled at the top of the snowfinger. They were waiting for me to bring the rope as the slabby red rock apparently was too steep and wet to be climbed without a belay. They didn't have to wait too long for me.

 

From near and in a cave in the moat at the top of the finger, Greg belayed Stefan up the slab while I looked on and Juan kept his weight (feet) on the pickets so they wouldn't pull. It didn't take long for Stefan to get to a suitable belay spot behind a large snow block in a deep moat. He slung one horn en route. That was his only protection for the 130-ft pitch. The three of us followed on the remaining rope. The wet slabs were class 4. If dry, they would be an easy class 4 or hard class 3. After that, we pretty quickly got ourselves up to the top of the col to the notch above (right) of the lowest notch.

 

From the upper notch it was largely class 3 scrambling or BW4 through scrub pines to get to the summit ridge. There was one sketch, no run out, 40-foot snow traverse to gain the ridge. That might have been the mental crux for me. The summit area is actually quite flat despite the appearance to the contrary from the highway and B4 rest stop (the ice cave trail approach). The summit area was 95% snow but, fortunately, the true summit was bare enough that the register (placed in 1993) was visible. Some notable names (to me, anyway): Roger Jung twice (one entry was 4.5 hours up on 1/18/03), Ronnie Parker, James Fishburn, Dallas Kloke, Don Beavon (he did a traverse up from Hall Peak to the NW and then down the Dry Creek Route). There were other names but they escape me at the moment.

 

We returned to the upper notch then thrashed (squeezed past) some unsavory BW5 scrub pines to the lower notch. From the lower notch, we rappeled down to about the halfway point of the steep snowfinger.

 

We opted to return straight down the gut of the couloir instead of up on the sketchy north slope. The gut (center) was heavily scoured by previous sloughalanches. In no time we got down to the rock outcrops at about 4,800 ft in the couloir. I had told the others that these downsloping rock outcrops could be downclimbed by doing the crab walk. Boy was I wrong. Sorry guys. Anyway, we managed to get around them by doing steep snow instead (lots and lots of face-in snow downclimbing on this climb).

 

Okay, so here's where some more fun happened: Below the rock outcrops it was necessary to cross a avalanche channel. Juan was way ahead of us and had already glissaded out of the couloir and out of sight around the corner. Stefan had crossed the channel and was waiting for us. I had just moved in and out of the channel (it required some funky hard snow moves to get out of) and Greg was last. Stefan began glissading. When Greg was about halfway across the 12-foot wide channel we heard a rumble from above. Suddenly, a slushy avalanche poured like a waterfall over the rock outcrops some 100 yards above. I've never seen Greg move so fast! We watched as two or three more avalanches barfed over the rocks. We were safe to one side but the avy was still quite the disconcerting spectacle. This was even more the case considering that we had been in the gut of the couloir above the rock outcrops only 20 minutes before. If the avalanche had occured at that moment we would have all been swept over the rocks and would have received untold injuries.

 

The rest of the hike out was uneventful until the log crossing. The hard avalanche debris declivity was bone-jarring after such an involved day's worth of climbing. The dry creek bed (which, incidentally, was now the wet creek bed in the vicinity of avy debris outlet due to the extremely warm temperatures) was more of the same. Somehow Juan swung too far left on return to the river. I was following him but lost him in the trees. Meanwhile, Stefan and Greg were behind and going in another direction. When I got to the river there was no sight of the log. It turns out I was about 700 yards downstream of the log. Arriving at the log there was no one around. I gingerly crossed the log as the sounds of a car horn rang out to me. Had Juan arrived there already? Or was it Stefan & Greg? Or all three of them?

 

As it turns out it was only Greg & Stefan. Juan was nowhere in sight. What had happened to him? We waited for at least 20 minutes, honking the horn here and there and calling out for him. Eventually, Stefan took his car down the road to look for him. Juan had wound up walking across the river (thigh deep, he said) way downstream from the log. Stefan brought him back to us.

 

Humorous epilogue (a study in Murphy's Law):

Juan had stashed his car keys under the front tire of his car. Somehow during the day the car had shifted forward slightly such that the keys were no longer retrievable (extractable). So here is the catch-22: Juan can't get his keys to get into his car so he can move his car so he can get at his keys. With much futzing and prodding with various implements, he was able to get his keys out from under the tire. To add insult to injury, the beer he had opened had fallen over and half had drained out into oblivion!

 

Gear Notes:

Used:

Two pickets, 60m rope, runners

Should have had:

A few pieces of rock pro perhaps.

More advanced notice of avalanche doom coming our way.

 

Nothing to read here. Nothing at all. Carry on.

[JoshK]

Remember, people climb Big4 as a winter climb too, when you probably wont see them sign the summit register.

 

Didn't somebody from here epic on it this past winter? Or was that the winter before?

[AllYouCanEat]

Right on. Good TR. I hate sluff...

[olyclimber]

Great TR klenke. Sounds like an exciting trip. Sorry to hear about Juan's beer.

[klenke]

Josh: you speak as if people climb it in winter often. Maybe once in a while but not often. What you are probably thinking of was Layton's party. They climbed it in late February 2003. His party may have signed the register if it was locatable. We didn't memorize every name in it, so their names may been in there nonetheless. I jokingly said to the others that we could descend the Spindrift Couloir Route in about 10 minutes. We probably wouldn't stop bouncing and rolling until we got to the Big Four parking lot and viewpoint. Talk about speed descents. The other three didn't go for it though. I guess they figured we still had enough adventure waiting for us on the east side of the peak.

 

Here is Layton's TR.

Here is Daylward's TR.

Here is a summer TR from Alex K..

Here is a summer TR from Juan Sharp. (now that I think about it, I remember his name in the register, which was indeed damp as he said).

 

I'll probably have some pictures available later this week.

Edited April 27, 2004 by klenke

[Dru]

maybe he was thinking about mike layton climbing it and mr.doolittle calling out the rescue

[Bronco]

It's my recolectoin that Mr. Layton and Mr. Anderson? teamed up and climbed some route on the N. Face and had a brush delayed return last winter. Because of the delay, a concerned individual intiated a rescue.

[klenke]

Yeah, I found Layton's TR after doing a search on just "Big Four." I'm having trouble with the URL linking. The links to the TRs will be provided in my previous post just as soon as I get them figured out.

[JoshK]

Yeah, Paul, I totally agree...it's not climbed much at all. I was just saying that register probably wont reflect most winter climbs.

 

One man's "delay" is another man's epic!

[klenke]

I have created a Big Four Mountain page on summitpost. Go there for pictures, Dry Creek route information, etc.

[Gary_Yngve]

So what is the least tagged summit [of some substance] out there in the Cascades?

 

My vote goes for Swiss Peak.

[klenke]

This is not the thread to open that discussion.

This is the thread you want to pose the question in.

[Alpine_Tom]

This can be a great winter/spring climb, if you get good conditions, and maybe one of the most dangerous in bad conditions. I found that approaching up the ice caves trail and contouring left around the mountain to be a lot easier than schwacking overland the way Beckey describes.

[geoflixclimbs]

Klenke,

 

Jim J and I attempted the Big Four on April 10, and stopped at the narrowing couloir due to thigh-deep snow and 5-minute-long oatmealanches. I planned to attack it again this weekend, but your TR suggests I reconsider. Thanks for the post.

 

P.S. I have been in your element following your lead, and it is not pretty.

[Stefan]

Somebody was up there the day before or two days before we were up there, but they turned around too......I would like to know who was the person(s).

 

The hazard was the large snowblocks on the "red rocks" at the apex of the large couloir. I would suspect that those large snow blocks would be gone and not be a hazard in mid May.

[klenke]

You must mean these snow blocks, Stefan:

Maybe it was one of these that let loose and avalanched on us!

 

Steve: I received your pics. They look a lot like mine of the same views. Not much difference in snowcover between April 10 and April 25.

 

Tom: There is really no brush at all doing the approach Beckey describes from milepost 27. We got to the base of the route (Dry Creek basin) in 50 minutes. 10 of those minutes were spent at the log crossing (10 minutes to go 100 feet). It's about one mile from road to basin. How long did it take you to go around the mountain from the ice caves? Remember it is a mile of trail just to get to the ice caves then whatever else (half-a-mile?) to get around the towers on the NE Ridge. It is definitely farther going the ice caves route.

[Stefan]

You must mean these snow blocks, Stefan:

Maybe it was one of these that let loose and avalanched on us!

 

Correctomundo!

[JoshK]

Holy crap...those look rather intimidating.

[Juan]

Way to go. Our trip was last July, like the 13th or something. I was with Doug Walker, Craig McKibben, and Sam Shabb. We saw the May 2003 party in the register that included Dallas Kloke. Also, someone had signed in after a Jan. 2003 solo of the N.W. Ridge and over the top, as I recall. That would be a long winter day.

 

Isn't it a cool peak? It deserves to see more people even if just by the std. Dry Creek Route.

 

John Sharp

[Juan]

Allow me to revise my previous comments -- we did not actually see the May 2003 party, including Dallas Kloke, in the summit register. We saw their names. And our trip was 7/12 I guess. Not 7/13.

 

=;-)

[Alpine_Tom]

Tom: There is really no brush at all doing the approach Beckey describes from milepost 27. We got to the base of the route (Dry Creek basin) in 50 minutes. 10 of those minutes were spent at the log crossing (10 minutes to go 100 feet). It's about one mile from road to basin. How long did it take you to go around the mountain from the ice caves? Remember it is a mile of trail just to get to the ice caves then whatever else (half-a-mile?) to get around the towers on the NE Ridge. It is definitely farther going the ice caves route.

Well, when I tried following Beckey's directions, it was from an old edition of CAG. But I got totally lost in brush and trees and a swamp, for several hours. It was just miserable.

The trail up to the snowcaves is a mile, say half an hour, then another half hour to contour around the mountain. No logs to cross, no bogs to circumnavigate, no gullys to identify.

 

Sounds like your sense of direction is superior to mine.