skykilo Posted March 13, 2006 Posted March 13, 2006 Climb: Mt Formidable-Northwest Face Date of Climb: 3/12/2006 Trip Report: So. I have work to do and I wasn't going to write a trip report. But all I can do right now is stare at the wall and daydream about a never-ending mountain face of blower pow. So write I will. Nice slideshow Friday night, Mike. I enjoyed it. I was going to stop drinking after the Patron was gone, but j'ai eu soif. Drank way too much. Plans for the one-day Sunday were perfected and ready. The only problem was if I moved my head it hurt real bad. Chorizo, eggs and medicinal herbs from the downstairs roomies finally cured me around two. So I grabbed Ross and we were cruising toward the North Cascades shorty after four. Credit is due, so I must acknowledge that Ross was talking about this route over two years ago when I first met him and we skied Buckner. My interest was finally whetted when I got a glimpse of the Northwest Face while heading up the Middle Fork to Spider last month. Couple that with this dynamite photo from John Scurlock and we were ready to go. Finally high-centered to no avail at mile 16 on Cascade River Road, we dug. Half an hour of digging, reverse, forward, digging and reverse and forward and we had the car on the side of the road pointing toward civilization. We skinned the remaining mile to the Middle Fork circa 8pm. Deadfall worse than normal bushwhacking was the boon of the night. We were relieved when Klenke's words rang true; Cleve Creek drainage is open and pleasant. From about 2,700' we were able to cut into open slopes and traverse into Cleve Creek. The moon was nearly full, the night was young and I was elated that every vertical foot we climbed from this point would be repaid with turns in powder. Somewhere partway up the drainage we had a snack and slept until we were too cold. As my old friend Don Quixote likes to tell it, snatches a nap, as they say, resting on his lance and with his feet on the stirrups as knights-errant did of old. Formidable and froid restricted our repose. Soon the full moon that obviated headlamps also cast aspersions on our access. How to get onto the face? The gully on the right looked like a one-way ticket to nowhere. The slopes we'd hoped to use on its left were snow-dusted rockslabs. Cliff bands barred the way on the left, but there was a chink in the armor on their right. With encouragement from Ross I skinned to the friendliest-looking spot. There I found thin snow over rock, giving way shortly above to thin ice over rock. I wasn't thinking clearly and wanted to sneak through the spot without any gear shenanigans. So I removed my skis, put them slightly above me into some snow and tried to get up the difficulty with naked ski boots. Halfway into the affair I lost my footing, fell into the snow below and knocked my skis down the slope. Ross caught one. The other? Stop. Stop. STOP! It stopped at the bottom of the slope and I proceeded to fetch it. While I was retracing my skin track, Ross put his skis on his pack, donned his crampons and made the moves. What followed the moves was a very spicy traverse on loose snow over rock above an ever larger cliff band. Through a scary windlip and now to the business. Up, up, up... approximately an hour before dawn our efforts put us in a bowl below an ice bulge. I was kicking steps and had avoided the accumulated snow in the bowl's middle, but at its top was faced with a dilemma. Cross the top of the bowl below the cliffs or retreat to a different route? My sphincter was clenched so tight it could have cracked a carbon nanotube, thinking about cutting a slab out of the bowl and riding it to Cleve Creek, so we found a way to retreat around a rib to some trees. From there we were able to skin. Above the bowl and cliffs, things were looking good. Ross skins at dawn. We were at the base of the upper face by 8:30. The snow here had ripples, evidence of wind-scouring. We were encouraged. Booting up the face varied from boot-top powder to knee deep swimming. Prolific self-congratulations ensued. Picture yourself perched above cliffs, between rockbands, on a gorgeous steep face filled with powder. Yeah. Things got tricky at the top. Sugar snow over steeper rocks. We did some really cool booting along the North Ridge with stimulating exposure. There was a good spot for making the change about 15 vertical feet below the summit, so we left the skis there. Sidestepping the 60-degreeish knife-edge ridge at the top seemed passé. I've side-stepped so much in the Cascades already. Twenty-five hours after waking up with a hangover, Sky climbs the final bit of ridge to the summit. Washington winter wonderland As far as the descent, suffice it to say that it was the best non-stop, fall-line powder run I've had. 5,600 feet to the Middle Fork with a couple pauses to rest the legs and utter platitudes like "Fuck yeah!" A nice boof into powder at the bottom of the face over the bulge at the edge of the cliff band, where I lost my ski so early in the morning. We hauled ass through the Middle Fork's death-shwhack. Sausage sounded good. That's a lot of powder! Gear Notes: Thermos full of sex-shot Americano CRITICAL Quote
olyclimber Posted March 13, 2006 Posted March 13, 2006 right click, set as desktop background Approved Quote
DirtyHarry Posted March 13, 2006 Posted March 13, 2006 Discusting. How ugly and looks like shitty skiing too. Makes me want to move to Colorado. Quote
Weekend_Climberz Posted March 13, 2006 Posted March 13, 2006 FnA!! That's pretty sweet dude! Sorry I missed the slides lastnight Quote
Weekend_Climberz Posted March 13, 2006 Posted March 13, 2006 Discusting. How ugly and looks like shitty skiing too. Makes me want to move to Colorado. Quote
AllYouCanEat Posted March 13, 2006 Posted March 13, 2006 (edited) Holly crap, Sky. When I was sitting home Sunday, and looked outside, I thought, "Shit I should'a joined Sky," but then I thought, "Hell, he's just getting the approach down." I guess I was wrong. Thanks for the photos. In one of them, I can see there's plenty of more work to be done. Anyhow, I got my goods on the NE Face of Big Four last weekend. I'm not jealous Okay, I am. Nice pic too, Ross. I've had that one on my list for a long time too. Edited March 13, 2006 by AllYouCanEat Quote
ivan Posted March 13, 2006 Posted March 13, 2006 goddamit sky - would you please stop doing sweet shit like this and making me all pissed at being stay-home dad for these painful few months? maybe i just need to stop surfing the board for awhile... Quote
dbb Posted March 13, 2006 Posted March 13, 2006 right on! way to get er done sky and ross... I think you should rate your trip bottle-of-patron+ Quote
JoshK Posted March 14, 2006 Posted March 14, 2006 hells yeah, way to get after that shit Sky and Ross. Wayne tipped me that you guys were thinking of making the attempt when we were skiing the other day. I honestly thought you guys would just be plowing too much snow to make it all the way. Glad I was wrong! Quote
EJohnson Posted March 15, 2006 Posted March 15, 2006 I got my goods on the NE Face of Big Four last Lets see some pictures Quote
savaiusini Posted March 15, 2006 Posted March 15, 2006 Phil wrote a TR: Trip Report and edited a video: Video Quote
DirtyHarry Posted March 15, 2006 Posted March 15, 2006 Cool. Been waiting for those. Ross - excellent pic's on Formidable, BTW. its tough to get a good shot when its dark in the foreground and light in the background. Fuckin schweet. Quote
EJohnson Posted March 16, 2006 Posted March 16, 2006 Formidable & Big 4 TR's - Great photos Question for Phil, What are you using to capture the video? Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.