Holliway Mountain

Holliway Mountain (8,000ft)

Probable First Ski Descent

On the summit (photo by Fletcher)

May 8, 2021, 5am – 7pm

Eric, Fletcher, Damon, Josh

15 miles, 8,500ft gain

Highway 20 had just opened on Wednesday so we decided to go for a top 200 peak in that area. Holliway Mountain makes a good day trip from highway 20, and seems like a good one to get in the spring while the route is covered in snow instead of loose rock. Interestingly, Holliway has only seen 15 recorded ascent parties since its first ascent in 1981. This is probably because nearby Golden Horn and Tower get most of the attention in the area, and Holliway is a bit shorter and harder to get to. But the views are still great and I think it has a very fun route. From what I researched it had never been skied, but with such good snow coverage and an appealing southwest gully up to the summit ridge I thought it would make for a fun ski route.

The route

Friday night I slept in the Easy Pass trailhead pullout, then Saturday morning drove 5 min up the road to the Swamp Creek pullout. I met up with Fletcher, Damon and Josh and we got moving around 5am. I’d previously climbed Mount Hardy from this pullout, so was familiar with the south face route. Our route would share much of the same approach.

We crossed Swamp Creek on the road, then plunged into the woods. I started skinning soon, but the snow eventually got too icy and melted out, so I switched to booting. Eventually the steep south face became completely melted out between about 4800ft and 5600ft. Then the snow started as we emerged above treeline. We were treated to great views of clouds passing through the surrounding mountains like Black, Corteo, and Cutthroat.

Damon near the top of the SW gully

We soon switched to crampons and got ice axes out, then traversed steep slopes around 6,800ft to a wide bench on the east ridge of Hardy. I put skis on there and had fun turns down dust on crust conditions on the north side of Methow Pass, while the other guys booted down. My skis required a bit more energy to carry up to that ridge but for the rest of the trip I’d say they were totally worth it.

We met up with the PCT and followed it north to near Golden Creek. Before reaching the creek we traversed high around the northwest ridge of Golden Horn through mostly open forest and soon emerged at Nugget Lakes. From there we could see the summit at the top of the 2,000ft southwest gully. We filled water at a small waterfall at the bottom of the gully, then put crampons on and started climbing up.

The gully was filled with avy debris in the middle that made for easy booting but would likely make skiing difficult. As we got higher the gully steepened and got icier. Near the top we were front pointing with dagger placements of our ice axes or whippets. As we reached the ridge the snow melted out and we scrambled third class terrain and loose rocks, reaching the summit around noon.

On the summit ridge looking back towards Golden Horn

There were two summit registers, one from the first ascent team of 1981 in a film canister and another from Fay Pullen in a pvc tube. Interestingly the film canister register was in pristine condition but the pvc one was very moldy. We signed in and enjoyed the view for a half hour before starting the scramble down.

For some reason I’d carried my skis all the way to the summit, so had to scramble down with my skis on my backpack. The top of the gully was still too icy to ski safely, but I downclimbed a few hundred feet and found some powder. I strapped skis on and carefully made very tight turns in the soft snow between the avy debris and the steeper walls. I had to make a few jump turns but it worked out. Lower I found good corn on the face to the right of the gully and made fun turns all the way to the lake.

Downclimbing to skiable snow (photo by Fletcher)

We followed our tracks out, with me skiing and the rest of the crew booting. We followed the PCT back up, then ascended steeply back up to near Methow Pass. By then stoke for tagging Hardy as a bonus peak had decreased and been replaced by stoke for getting pizza before the restaurant in Winthrop closed. So we traversed the steep snow slope. I skied down to the edge of snowline on the south face of Hardy and we all booted from there back to the cars shortly after 7pm.

When I got to my forester I noticed the rear side window was smashed open and a duffle bag of gear I’d hidden under the seat was stolen. In all the thief had stolen $1,000 of my gear, including avy beacon, probe, shovel, sleeping bag, pad, and even my shoes and a sandwhich I’d hoped to eat on returning. They stole some of Damon’s gear from his truck also. So be careful if you park on highway 20.

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