Dec 8, 2011; Snow Lakes Ice Lines

[Cornfed]

Jeff and I were gunning to find something that was "IN" and thought Alpental Valley would be our best bet, and we didn't want to drive all the way to Leavenworth to get shut out. We figured Source Lake Line or Flow Reversal might be in. Source Lake Line was as thin as it looked in the photos you've all seen, so we went over to check out Flow Reversal. We made it right to the base, and it looked thick enough, but with strong sunshine, there was a lot of material coming down. It didn't seem intelligent to go up when there was so much coming down and lots of the ice was detached from the rock. Two strikes against us.

 

I told Jeff that I saw a picture the year before of some dudes climbing a line off Snow Lake. It was only 10am, and we were both game to explore a bit, and moving around the back-country on foot is about as easy as it gets for Alpental Valley right now.

 

As soon as we got to the lake, the temps dropped about 15 degrees - it felt like Canada compared to the sunny Alpental Valley side. We walked the length of the lake looking for the best possible line. There were several drips and drabs, but one seemed to be clearly the best line. This picture was taken after our climb from across Snow Lake. The major gulley in the cliff face has several possible ice lines; only one of which looked like it had enough continuous ice to make a climb out of it. The ice line is about 100 meters above the lake on the left side.

 

 

What we found was about 30 meters of pretty decent water ice 3 that connected to another 30 meters of steepish show and snice that ended at a couple of small trees on a flat bench. The bench is to the left at the top of the climb and it takes a full 60 meters of rope to reach the two small trees.

 

 

 

The climb was about 80 degrees for the 30 meters, and varied from very thin ice to ice that was thick enough to take 16 and 19 cm screws. It was also wet/mushy in places so it is still building, which is promising.

 

The crux move is near the top of the steep section where a bulge has to be overcome to reach the 60-70 degree snow slope above which is run out to reach the ledge above but fairly secure feeling.

 

 

Sorry that I forgot to bring a real camera, but thought this at least documents the climb. We were thinking that during most winter conditions, this climb is either covered in snow, or the avy danger of this steep slope makes this off limits. We also know this climb isn't in the ice climbing book. Has anyone ever climbed this route?

 

It will be good as long as the cold weather continues.

 

We moved the belay to a larger tree (shown here) for our repel and tied a red sling to a tree to repel. Didn't see any evidence of slings or repel gear from prior ascents, but it could have been under some snow as getting to this large tree was tricky!

 

 

You have to work your way to the uphill side on the repel to have enough rope. If you sling your ropes over a large rock you get a bit of a free hang repel right down to the belay platform!

 

Would love to hear of others getting back here before the snow starts again.

 

Gear notes: 2-60 meter ropes and about 8 ice screws. You probably could place a picket on the upper slope to avoid such a long run-out.

Edited December 10, 2011 by Cornfed

[kevino]

Pat wrote a TR about a line in this area, I'll see if I can find it.

[kevino]

Here is what i was talking about:

 

http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=865079

 

Either way, nice work getting out. With the inversion going on I bet snow lake will be much more prime for ice than the source lake area.

[Cornfed]

That looks like a very different location though snow conditions can play tricks on your eyes-- we walked the length of the lake and saw several spots that looked like they could form up in different conditions, but this line is about half way between the East and West ends of the lake (opposite the summer trail). The post here mentions a location that is probably closer to the West end of the lake where they typical ski link-up comes from Chair. I think we spied this location in the link you mentioned, but it didn't connect. Looks awesome in this photo though.

[bigeo]

Here is some other ice climbing we found at Snow Lake recently [img:left][/img]