Dandy Mountain by Snowmobile

Dandy Mountain (4,360ft)

November 14, 2020, Eric and Damon

For the past few winters I’ve been trying to squeeze longer and longer trips into weekends to climb Bulger peaks. For most of these peaks the roads to the trailheads are snowed-over all winter and impassable to passenger cars. This has generally meant many miles of skiing on snowed-over roads just to get to the trailheads.

This has resulted in some pretty long days, perhaps culminating in an ascent of Windy Peak and a few nearby peaks with Fred in January 2020. That trip turned out to be a 53-mile, 32-hour continuous push without sleeping. This was mainly because the road was snowed over and impassable 14 miles from the trailhead. On that trip we started skiing from the car at midnight friday night, finally reaching the trailhead around dawn. I then got to the summit of Windy peak by 10pm and skied all the way back out to the car by the next morning without sleeping.

Back at the car we saw snowmobilers going up the road no problem. I continued doing long approaches to trailheads, like a trip hitting Saska, Cardinal, and Emerald that required skiing 15 miles just to get to the trailhead. On each of these trips I was always passed by snowmobilers, and vowed to some day get a snowmobile. That would allow me to start skiing at the trailheads, turning two-day trips into one-day trips to capitalize on short weather windows, and weeklong expeditions into feasible winter weekends.

I’m of course a proponent of self-propelled travel, but given that most people are ok with taking motorized transportation to trailheads in the summer time, it seems ok to me to take motorized transport to trailheads in the winter time.

There are two main options for motorized travel to trailheads in winter: electric fat bike or snowmobile. An electric fat bike is easier to store and transport and cheaper than a new snowmobile. But it exerts 5-10 times more pressure on the snow and thus generally requires well-packed or groomed snow. It has much less range than a snowmobile, and that range is cut down considerably if you’re towing a second climber on skis. A ballpark upper bound for approaches to trailheads in winter towing a second climber is around 10 miles.

For Bulger peaks, my main objectives in winter, many trailheads are 20-30 miles in from the last plowed areas (Trinity, Thirtymile, Cathedral). And there’s no guarantee the snow will be well-packed down. A snowmobile exerts about 5-10 times less pressure on the snow than a fat bike and can make it through deep powder. It also has a range closer to 100 miles (or more with spare fuel tank). It is no problem to tow or carry a second climber. The main disadvantage of a snowmobile is it is potentially more expensive, and more difficult to store and transport. And if it breaks down there is no option to pedal out like on a fat bike.

It’s possible to buy pretty cheap used snowmobiles, but that generally sacrifices reliability. Given the very remote trailheads I wanted to access, I wanted the most reliable transport possible.

So with my objective of climbing Bulger peaks in the winter it made the most sense to buy a new snowmobile.

After saving up money I found what I think was the cheapest new non-youth-size snowmobile in washington (a 2019 ski-doo that hadn’t sold in the past two years and was on sale) and finally pulled the trigger to buy it in November. There’s actually quite a bit of logistics in getting a snowmobile, which my friend Damon helped a lot with. The order of operations I had to do was:

1. Get hitch installed on my forester at Uhaul (once-a-week by appointment), including hitch lock
2. Reserve storage space (outdoor storage in north bend)
3. Buy utility trailer at Lowe’s, including trailer lock and spare tire with mount, and ratchet straps
4. move trailer to storage
5. Register trailer at department of licensing and get license plate within 2-week grace period
6. Pay for snowmobile at dealership, plus extras like cover, oil, two-person seat, extra spark plugs, extra drive belt, sno park pass
7. Return a few days later to pick up snowmobile after servicing and move to storage
8. Order spare parts on amazon like ice scratchers, spare fuel tank
9. Install ice scratchers

Luckily soon after getting all the logistics sorted out there was a big snowstorm Friday night with up to three feet in

the mountains. Damon very kindly agreed to go out to stampede pass to teach me how to use the snowmobile.

We met up at my storage in north bend in the morning and drove over the snowy snoqualmie pass to the Crystal Springs sno park. I was worried about towing with the forester but it had no problem. The lot at Crystal Springs wasn’t plowed yet but we managed to find a spot to park on the side. Damon towed his snowmobile and I towed mine.

It is actually much easier to operate than I expected. No gear shifting, just a throttle and a brake. We cruised up the road to stampede pass and then over to a meadow to practice. I got stuck a few times in the deep powder but learned how to dig and pull it out. It actually requires quite a bit of balance and technique to get through deep powder on uneven terrain, but it is very easy to operate on a well-packed road.

We continued up to a nice overlook above Keechelus Lake, then went steeply up to the highpoint on the road. This was a few hundred feet below the Dandy Mountain summit. We left the snowmobiles there and continued through the snow. It was surprisingly difficult without skis or snowshoes.

About three feet of snow had fallen the previous night and not really consolidated at all, so I was postholing all the way to ground in waist-deep snow. It was actually most efficient to crawl, so I continued crawling through the woods, only sinking down perhaps a foot.

After about 20 minutes we finally reached the summit and admired more views down to Keechelus Lake. It was a bit easier getting back. But then when I turned my snowmobile on I noticed the low-fuel light turn on. I had stupidly trusted the dealer when they told me they filled up the tank, when in fact they put in only a third of a tank of gas. Also, it appeared the fuel gauge got messed up a bit when I rolled the snowmobile around digging it out from snow banks.

So we decided to head back down and not risk me having to get towed out by Damon. Back just below Stampede Pass we came upon a truck stuck in a ditch and a convoy of ten more trucks and jeeps behind it. It’s not too surprising they got stuck in all that fresh snow, and I was happy to be on a snowmobile and have no problem. We weaved around the convoy and eventually made it back to the base, then drove home.

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