[TR] Beebe Mountain- East Ridge to East Face 3/25/2005

[klenke]

Climb: Beebe Mountain-East Ridge to East Face

 

Date of Climb: 3/25/2005

 

Trip Report:

To be imperfectly frank, Beebe* we be for a day. We was Mike Collins and myself.

 

Mike and I wanted to get ahead of the forecasted weekend gloom, so we set out on Friday to climb Beebe Mountain via its East ridge and face. We parked here (c. 2,600 ft) at a nice little pull-out spur beside the creek and left the car at 8:30AM. Right off the bat there is steep terrain to deal with: 300 vertical feet of steep forest and minor cliffbands above the road. The sides of my ankles burned from the immediate exertion of it. But once we got through that it was more or less easy going all the way up to Pt. 5639. The underforest was mostly open although there were the ever-present windfalls and a few segments of tightly spaced young trees. We encountered a smattering of snow over the duff and this made things slippery. We even passed a woodpecker condominium near Pt. 5639 and shortly after we passed it the pecking began in earnest. I can't imagine camping next to such a niggling noise.

 

Once onto the flatter ridge beyond Pt. 5639 we strapped on snowshoes and began a leisurely stroll onward in modestly forested terrain. At first I was concerned at the cliffs I was descrying through breaks in the trees straight ahead. Uh oh! Was the East Face that cliffy? Surely not. My concerns were assuaged once I realized it was the 800-ft North Face I was seeing (picture).

The East Face was merely a steep snow slope. Yet this slope also had its issues. Was there an avalanche danger? How much snow would there be on it? It seems obvious there would be a crust underneath whatever powder existed there.

 

As we got closer it appeared the best line was on the far right side of the face near the edge of the North Face. It wasn't much of a rib at that right edge. More like a corner but more or less out of the way of the more avy prone slopes to the left.

 

We continued up the steepening slope, keeping right in the trees that were rapidly coming to an end. The conditions were getting more and more difficult for snowshoes (moderately hard crust) but this also pleased us since we now realized there wasn't enough powder for avalanche concerns (at least not with the cool, overcast skies).

 

At the last, small band of trees we took off the pods and put on the 'pons. They proved quite useful. From there on to the summit the ground alternated between bare crust to 10 inches of powder over crust. The going was slow and the weather was deteriorating just enough to dampen our desires to run the ridge southward to Pk 7160+ ("Tarheel").

 

Eventually, the summit crest loomed close as we arced right toward a cornice and looked down on the attractively-iced North Face. I pressed ahead for the final push.

 

As expected, the cornices were not an insurmountable barrier for our attack. But the crust transitioned to leeside knee-deep powder as I angled toward the chink of least resistance. Plod plod plod. I did not know it then but the big cornice to the right was the highest point (and probably the summit when bare).

 

The summit of Beebe Mountain (7416F, 1056P) was beclouded. Fleeting yet abstract views were all we would receive. Though it had been a 5 hour, 15 minute ascent (could take a mere 3 hours in easier conditions), we were no longer in a hurry since Tarheel was out. We loitered and loitered but the clouds wouldn't part. We really wanted to see Elija Ridge to the WSW since it is on both of our wishlists. Here it is in the left side of this picture from Ruby in January.

 

Here is Mike at the summit with the south crest beyond--just about the only significant view we had from the top:

 

The descent back down the East Face went quick.

 

We'd have to wait until we got below the cloud deck to get any views of the immediate topography. At the base of the face we waited at least half-an-hour for Jack Mountain and Crater Mountain to throw off the clouds clinging onto their flanks. The weather was improving slightly.

 

The return was easy except for the steepish forest east of Pt. 5639. Snowshoes couldn't handle the light puff over duff so we took them off. And I said to Mike, "Don't think for a minute this is going to be any easier without snowshoes on." It wasn't. "Controlled sliding" is what I termed my descent technique.

 

Back at the car in 8 hours 15 minutes. 5,000 feet total gain approximately. Maybe 5 miles roundtrip. The top 1,800 feet of this climb could have been skied and more than once I wish I had some planks. Not worth the hump of ski gear from the road, although most of the forest would be skiable if there were enough snow.

 

Here is a shot of our route (pink arrows) from the north from the vicinity of Little Jack. The green arrows would have been our down route had we gone over to Pk 7160+.

 

* So who was Frank Beebe?

From Poets on the Peaks, pgs. 11-12 (©2002, John Suiter):

"Frank Beebe...had first come to Washington from Ohio in 1895 at the age of 20. On the train west, [he] had fallen in with some prospectors on their way to the 'Glory Hole' on [nearby] Ruby Creek. Feeling lucky, he went along with them and spent a hopeful season panning the streams, but in the end came in to Bellingham, where he took a job in a shingle mill. Later, Beebe made his living on fishing boats in Alaska. But the Skagit had gotten into his blood, and in his middle age, he began making trips back to Ruby Creek, no longer seeking gold, but trapping for ermine, marten, and mink. Sometimes Beebe camped at the shipwrights' old abandoned cabin on Granite Creek; around 1920 he decided to claim it and moved the whole thing, log by log and shake by shake, down to the shady flat in the fork of Granite and Canyon creeks [three miles north of present-day Beebe Mountain]....Over the next few years Beebe added a shake-walled kitchen and a sleeping room. In 1928 he went to work for the Forest Service, and his place became the guard station. When Frank Beebe eventually retired and moved back to Bellingham, the Forest Service purchased that cabin from him and maintained it until the late 1950s."

 

Gear Used:

snowshoes, ice axe, crampons

Gear should have left behind:

30m safety rope

Gear could have used:

skis for the upper part but not worth the carry weight up from the car.

 

Approach Notes:

From the west, drive North Cascades Highway to the Canyon Creek Trailhead then continue ~3.3 miles to where a creek is flowing out of a canyon. There is a 100-ft-long spur road into this canyon. Park here. It is about a 1/4-mile before the East Creek Trailhead, which is on the east side of the road.

[Nelsen]

Hey Paul - great report! sounds like you guys had a good day - thanks for sending it along. I suffered in the rain today up near St Helens experimenting with rain gear for a Kauaikini attemp in May. (Have to go back to the drawing board!)

 

Don Nelsen

[Alex]

yay winter is back!

[philfort]

Nice, but you should have carried some skis :-)

Too bad you didn't get a clear view of Elija Ridge - that looks like some nice terrain on the north side of it. I tried to go in there once via Panther Creek, but it didn't work out too well.

[Norman_Clyde]

Nice TR. Mike, I'm extremely pleased to see you back to peakbagging (if I may call it such).

 

Klenke, given the spelling and pronunciation of your name, plus your clever rhyme scheme (Beebe we be), maybe you can enlighten us all about the correct pronunciation of a couple of Cascade classics, namely:

 

Is the "E" at the end of Mts. Goode and Slesse pronounced, or not?

[klenke]

I don't know about Slesse (I always say it with a long 'e' at the end).

 

Goode is supposed to have a silent 'e' but just about everyone I know uses a long 'e' probably because with a long 'e' it sounds more jolly. Plus, there can be no doubt which peak is being talked about. If you say it with a silent 'e' as in Mt. Good it kind of has less power behind it.

 

As for Beebe, I don't really know if it's supposed to be a silent or long 'e'. I guess I should find out. Without the long 'e' it would sound kind of funny but one never knows.

[Stefan]

thanks for the report!

[Alex]

Where I grew up on the East coast the pronounciation would have been different, but I always assumed it was a "Northwest Pronunciation" thing to pronounce the "e" at the end of these peak names. For example:

 

Sahale

Goode

Slesse

Beebe

[catbirdseat]

I'd heard that the present pronunciation of Sequim as "skwim" was because of the influx of East Coasters. It's original pronunciation was "see-kwim". Reference:Whistlepunks and Geoducks

[Fred_Beavon]

That sounds like a neat loop trip you had planned, going over "Tarheel". Thanks for bringing it to my attention. I had never considered it before. I'll definitely do the loop.

[Blake]

Is the "E" at the end of Mts. Goode and Slesse pronounced, or not?

 

Definitely supposed to be "Good" with silent E.

[Stefan]

What about "Domke"?

[Blake]

What about "Domke"?

 

Dom-Key

[klenke]

What about "Klenke?"

[MCash]

Both Es are silent on that one.