A look at Maude's North Face 6/23/02.....

[brukb]

Approach: Road to Phelp's Creek trail head is driveable now right to the trailhead. On the trail there are some creek and river crossings that were a little tricky due to washouts and very high water flow. First one involved an aid move on branches about 50 ft. upstream from the trail, last one went across a large log right at the turn off to Leroy Creek trail. About 1/2 of the hike in was on snow up to about 5,000 feet, then it was almost all snow. Did some minor bushwacking while routefinding up to Leroy basin.

We bivied at about 7500 ft. With beautiful views. Lots of running water. There is still a lot more snow than usual up there for this time of year.

 

Route: From the saddle between Maude and Seven Fingered Jack we tried to scope the route, but could not quite see it. The snow had not quite hardened up enough to our liking and the sun was already on the route since the moment of sunrise. The shaded snow was rapidly losing firmness just from the heat of the day at 6:00 a.m., and the snow in the sun was on it's way to Slurpee consistency. We had no desire to swim up a 55-60 degree slope on snow that I could drink through a straw so we bailed. This route is called the "North Face", but it is actually only a north-facing aspect on an East face, and this time of year (Summer solstice)the sun is so far North that the shaded route that we had hoped for was not happening. We cruised up Jack instead for a fun climb up good snow on moderately steep snow, with a fun scramble to the summit after getting past the choss. From Jack's summit we could see the "North Face" route on Maude and could see that only a small fraction of it was actually shaded, the rest was heating up rapidly. There were tracks from another party that had done the traverse from the saddle, under the "North Face", and then up the right side of the Entiat icefall, but no tracks up the North Face. The icefall looked easy and straightforward, could be done without any ice climbing, but then why bother.

 

Maude's North Face still has a lot of snow on it also. It should should shape up into some good alpine ice with 2-4 more weeks of melt-off and refreezing. Later in the season should also put the route in a more shaded position as the sun moves further South, allowing more climbable conditions. We probably could have done it safely if we had started a couple hours earlier, allowing us to get well up the route before sunrise.

[Kyle_Flick]

Thank you for the posting. As I was up there and saw you guys on my way down, I agree with your assessment. I thought it might be better in the early morning, but it sounds like even then the sun hits it.

[layton]

Its more E facing than N. as I recall. Gets sun way early. Climb it at night it's straigtforeward.

 

a little secret (although illegeal)

 

Bring a mtn bike for the 1st part of the approach. Get nasty looks, and save time. Take the 7-finger jack/maude col, don't stay on the sucker trail.

 

I didn't mtn bike cuz I didn't know how flat and nice the trail was, but others since have.