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[TR] Three Fingers - Northeast Face (FA); FWA North Peak 2/3/2007


John Frieh

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Drive to Darrington and take the Squire Creek Road out of town (it's near the west end of town). There are essentially no turns off the main road so it is easy. Drive up some switchbacks until you are traversing the left hand side of the valley. about a mile before the trailhead there is a small land slide over the road. you could probably 2WD over this if you brought a shovel to smooth things out a bit. There are some small (3") downed trees on the road ahead, but nothing that you couldn't wheel over.

 

Once at the washout trailhead, hike along the closed road. once across the washout look to climb up to the old road bed. Follow the road to the old trailhead, passing the Squire Creek Wall along the way. Simply follow the trail until it meets a creek (marked on USGS) before the trail begins the climb up switch backs towards Squire Pass. Drop down tothe valley bottom and follow the river about another 30 minutes up valley (no brush at all!). You'll enter a clearing where you can see Three Fingers's East Face. Go to the river and cross on logs. Follow the dry creek bed up towards the basin under the East face. It takes 2 to 3 hours to get here from the car.

 

hike towards the middle of the basin and ascend a narrow and steep couloir that breaches the cliff band in the cirque. There are some obvious trees that mark this couloir. Once above the cliff band, traverse right to the base of the route.

 

To descend, find the shoulder between the North summit and the Northeast Buttress route. This leads to the North face. Descend while keeping left, easy walking, until you reach a steeper couloir at the bottom. It necks down but there is no need to rappel in the conditions we found. This puts you down at the Craig Lakes.

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Not too surprised, but I recently found out that the north peak has been climbed before in winter. I don't know who or when, but it sounds like it has been done at least a couple times.

 

Jens Kieler and I climbed the North Peak by the standard route on January 11, 1981. We figured it had probably been done before. We climbed all three peaks that weekend and spent the night in the lookout.

 

 

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