Genius Peak

Genius Peak (8,039ft)

May 1, 2022, 1:45am – 5:15pm

15 miles skiing, 40 miles snowmobiling

Eric and Paul

I was looking for a top 200 peak that had an interesting approach to the trailhead, and Genius Peak was a top contender. Genius Peak is generally accessed from the Phelps Creek trailhead, and May is one of the trickiest times of the year to get in there.

In the winter and early spring the road is snowed over continuously starting at Fish Lake, and it is straightforward, though long, to snowmobile in about 23 miles from there. By early June the Chiwawa River Road is generally mostly melted out, and it’s possible to bike from the gate at the end of the pavement about 15 miles in to the trailhead. By mid June the road is generally completely melted out and the gate open, so it’s easy to just drive to the trailhead.

I’ve previously made it in to the Phelps Creek trailhead in January, February, and April by snowmobile, June by mountain bike, and summer/fall by driving.

May is the shoulder season and the most difficult time, in my experience, to get to the Phelps Creek trailhead. The problem is the Chiwawa River Road gets partially melted out, and making progress on a long partially melted road is tricky. In mid May 2020 I was able to drive to the gate at the end of the pavement. I then biked a few miles to patchy snow, then alternated between skinning pushing my bike and biking carrying my skis for a few miles. Then I was able to ski in the remaining 9 miles. (I went on to ski Chilly, Ice Box, Carne, and North Spectacle Butte on that trip).

Based on recent satellite images it looked like snow started near fish lake, but was patchy for a few miles, then mostly continuous.The main options to get through the patchy sections would be to either try to drive through in the truck until the snow got continuous, or park at the first snow and snowmobile through the snow and melted out sections. Neither solution is ideal.

It’s likely the snow could be too deep and the truck gets stuck. But snowmobiling on pavement is not ideal because

the engine can easily overheat, the ski carbides can get broken off, and it is very difficult to steer. I had a secret weapon, though – retractable wheels on the skis. I’d installed these last year and they had come in handy back in January when sledding up the partially-melted-out cascade river road to climb Forbidden. When I get to pavement I just fold them out and they allow me to steer and they save the skis from getting broken off.

There’s still a risk of overheating, since my sled requires snow to cool the engine. But I’ve installed a rack on the back that keeps the gear off the tunnel, and I can pack snow in the gap before riding on pavement to help cool things down.

Paul was interested in joining and we met up near Fish Lake at the start of Chiwawa River Road on Saturday evening. Paul got there first and scouted ahead. He drove through a short shallow snow section to more pavement then stopped when the snow apparently got continuous and deep. I knew from the satellite images there was bare pavement ahead, but the snow there was too deep to drive any farther without risking getting stuck. So we parked about 2 miles past the sno park.

There was a little bit of light left so while I unloaded the sled Paul chainsawed out a few trees over the road ahead. This time of year the sledders have stopped going up the road and nobody drives up the road, so there’s nobody else to clear out fallen trees. That’s why it’s a good idea to bring a chainsaw.

We loaded up the sled and went to bed around 10pm. After just a few hours nap we were up and riding by 1:45am.

It hadn’t really gotten very cold and the snow was slushy. This was actually good news, since slushy snow would cool the engine a lot better than icy snow. Back in February Paul and I had sledded in to Trinity and overheated every few miles because the snow was too icy.

The first half mile was tricky because it was deep snow and another truck had pushed through previously, making deep wheel ruts. These tend to flip the snowmobile over if I’m not careful. We then hit pavement, and I deployed the wheels. Over the next few miles there were alternating pavement and deep snow sections, with the longest pavement section perhaps half a mile. We would always deploy the wheels at the start of the pavement, then retract them at the end. Amazingly we didn’t overheat at all. I think my new attachement system on the tunnel helped air flow to cool the engine.

After a few miles the snow became more continuous and luckily the truck that had made the ruts had decided to turn around. There were shallow, older truck ruts all the way to the gate, and that truck must have had bigger tires, maybe deflated the tires, and probably drove in when the snow was icier.

Luckily the gate was open (I suspect the forest service closes it once it is is possible to drive to it, likely to keep people from driving through the muddy conditions on the dirt road beyond and making ruts in the mud).

We hit some patchy melted out sections in the mile beyond the gate, but those were no problem. Riding on a dirt road is much easier than pavement. The dirt is less likely to break the skis, it is possible to turn in dirt, and there were enough puddles from melting snow that I could ride through to cool the engine.

A few miles after the gate the snow got continous and progress much easier. We made it to within a few miles of the turnoff for Phelps Creek and then hit a tricky narrow section. On the left was a cliff, and on the road snow had slid over making it require sidehilling. I had Paul get off and I balanced through the first section, but it looked like it continued.

So we took out our shovels and dug out a shoulder just wide enough to sled through. We alternated a few times digging and riding, until the terrain mellowed at the Phelps Creek turnoff. Going up to Phelps Creek we saw somewhat fresh snowmobile tracks, and I suspect these were from the caretaker at Trinity.

Soon we encountered a tree over the road, and Paul jumped off and quickly chainsawed it out. Paul is actually the good citizen who chainsawed out the 6ft diameter tree on cascade river road last February that had stopped my sled progress in January going in to climb Forbidden. That tree would have stopped people this spring too at milepost 15, but now everyone can drive all the way to the Eldo lot and beyond. (It had taken Paul 3 hours of tough work apparently).

For the last two miles up to Phelps Creek we encountered a half dozen trees over the road, up to 2ft diameter. Paul ended up just carrying the chainsaw while we rode, so he could quickly jump off and saw out trees. We encountered one more sidehilling section that we dug out, but we eventually made it to the Phelps Creek trailhed by 4am.

Finally, we made it to the part of the trip where we could start climbing the mountain. It’s amazing how in the summer little thought is given to getting to the trailhead, but on this trip just making it to the trailhead was nearly the crux of the trip! I think this makes it fun, though, and is certainly a good way to avoid crowds.

We were soon skinning up the trail. Paul led the way and progress was fast. The snow was well consolidated and the trail very easy to find. Alpenglow soon started and we were able to turn off headlamps near Leroy creek.

Beyond Leroy creek the forest was very open and we pushed on to Spider Meadows. There we had great views to Red Peak and Dumbell Mountain at the head of valley, and the Spider Glacier hiding off to the left. Above us to the right we saw the broad south gully coming down from Genius Peak.

We skinned up toward the gully, but the snow soon got steep and icy, so we transitioned to crampons. The next section was challenging pie-crust snow. Only the first few inches were firm, and below that was soft snow. So sometimes we would sink in and others we would not. This is almost more difficult than just sinking in every time, since it’s unpredictable. Unfortunately it was too steep for skis and ski crampons.

The solution we figured out was to basically crawl up the slope. As long as some weight was supported on our knees we would generally not sink down too deep. Paul led up to a bench at 6000ft and then the angle eased. From there we skinned up with ski crampons into the center of the broad gully and up higher.

We made it to around 7,300ft before the slope increased again. From there we ditched skis and continued with crampons. I kiked steps steeply up the west face of Genius to the false summit on the north side. From there we traversed past some enormous cornices and topped out around 11:30am.

There are actually two summits of nearly equal height on Genius, and they are separated by about 100ft. I’d read about this from Eric Eame’s report, so came prepared with my new 5x sight level. I stood on each summit and backsighted the other, and measured the north summit 3ft taller than the south.

The views around were impressive. To the north we saw Bonanza, Greenwood, and Dumbell. To the west a cloud layer was obscuring views, but occasionally Glacier peak popped out. To the east we could make out Seven Fingered Jack, Maude, Fernow, and Copper.

By this time we were hearing a lot of commotion around, and it appeared the sun had been melting snow off the surrounding peaks creating quite a few small avalanches. The ridge to our north was covered in huge cornices, and we watched as bits of them broke off and triggered small slides.

We retraced our boot tracks down to the skis, then took a break to melt some snow. We had originally planned to continue to tag Dumbell and Greenwood, but were having second thoughts with all the snow sliding off peaks. The northwest face we descended was still icy, but south facing slopes were very slushy.

We put skis on and skinned over to a south slope, and were sinking in to our shins in the deep slush, even while wearing skis. I think the area had received new snow saturday, but not a solid refreeze, so the top foot or two of snow was now all slush. I had been hoping we would have typical spring conditions where only the top few inches are slushy corn and below that is solid, but that was not the case.

Our routes up Dumbell and Greenwood would require crossing and climbing large south-facing slopes, and that sounded like a dangerous idea in those conditions. So we instead decided to call it good with bagging Genius and get out before the snow heated up even more.

We changed to ski mode and made fun turns down the slope. It was at times difficult to turn in the deep slush. We generally followed our tracks back, since a direct descent would require avoiding a few cliff bands that would be tough to see from above.

We traversed across the bench, then skied down the steep slope in the trees. We then tried to maintain elevation above Spider Meadows and traverse as much as possible down the valley.

Eventually we met back with the trail and put the skins back on. From there it was easy cruising skinning back down the trail following our tracks. We made it to the sled at 3:30pm, and unsurprisingly we were still the only ones there. I don’t think that area will see too many other people until June.

We loaded up the sled and were cruising out by 4pm. This time we didn’t have to chainsaw out any trees or dig out any more slopes. I did have Paul jump off when we had to traverse above the cliffy areas, but it wasn’t too bad since we had dug it out and now the snow was slushier.

We cruised back out, and the ride was much more scenic in the daylight. Before long we hit the melted out gravel sections, which were full of meltwater and not problematic. As I rode over the open dirt sections I recalled a grisly sight from last June. I had biked in and had come across the charred remains of an incinerated snowmobile in that exact area. I suspect it had overheated and caught fire. But there was enough water on the road that that was not a risk today. Also, if the engine overheat light comes on I always immediatly stop the engine and cool it down.

We soon reached the gate, and luckily there were no new truck ruts. I had been worried somebody would try to drive all the way in while the snow was slushy and make it very difficult for us to sled out. But luckily that hadn’t happened.

We continued a bit farther until we hit pavement, and then hopped off to deploy the wheels. The pavement sections seemed longer than in the morning, and perhaps they had melted out a bit more. We went back and forth a few times deploying the wheels, then retracting them, and amazingly didn’t overheat at all. By 5pm we finally reached the trucks, and hadn’t seen any evidence of anyone else sledding or driving up there. We soon loaded up and were heading back home.

I suspect in another week it may be possible to drive a few miles farther in and avoid the melted out pavement sections. Though more sections will likely melt out too, so it’s hard to tell.

Movie of the trip:

 

 

 

 

 

 

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