Mt Fernow Winter Ascent

Mt Fernow (9,249ft)

March 5-6, 2022

Eric and Nick

34 miles skiing, 26 miles snowmobiling

Mt Fernow is located in Eastern Washington at the head of the Entiat River valley, next to two other 9000ers – Mt Maude and Seven Fingered Jack. I’d previously climbed Maude and Seven Fingered Jack in winter in January 2021, but hadn’t had time to tag Fernow on that trip.

Mt Fernow has three main approaches, which each converge on the standard SE face route. The most common option is to hike from Phelps Creek to Leroy Basin, then traverse around Gloomy Glacier and scramble around the south side of Fernow. Another option is to take the ferry to Holden and hike up Copper Creek to gain the east ridge. Finally, it’s possible to start at the cottonwood trailhead on the Entiat River and hike to the Entiat Glacier, then follow the east ridge to the southeast face.

I’d previously climbed Fernow in September 2018 using the Phelps Creek approach, but the most popular route in summer is not necessarily the best route in winter. In winter it’s an extra 23-mile approach on snowed over roads to get to the Phelps Creek trailhead. I’d snowmobiled in there in January 2021, but the last few miles to the trailhead were ungroomed and slow going. The route involves a lot of extra elevation gain to cross from Leroy Basin to the Gloomy Glacier, and involves crossing long stretches of avy terrain.

The route from Holden is by far the shortest, but the ferry schedule in winter makes it difficult to squeeze in a trip to Holden and a peak in a regular weekend, which is all I have to work with. The route from the Entiat River is by far the longest route, but it has less elevation gain than the Phelps Creek route and generally avoids avalanche terrain. It requires a 13-mile approach on snowed-over roads to get to the cottonwood trailhead, but it is occasionally groomed. I’d snowmobiled this approach in December 2020 to climb Pinnacle Peak, and the approach to the trailhead went smoothly.

Of these options I concluded the Entiat River approach is likely the best option in winter. I hadn’t heard of many people taking this route until last June 2021 when Selena posted an excellent report on nwhikers. The upper mountain was snowy enough for her trip that I figured it gave a good idea of what winter conditions might be like.

On Thursday night the latest NWAC forecast for our original objective was worse than expected, but conditions looked ideal in the East Central zone. So we decided to go for Fernow. We would ski in for efficiency on the long, flat 15-mile trail approach. The round-trip distance was a bit much to plan on for a day trip with all the uncertainties of speed in the winter, so we planned to camp at the base of the Entiat Glacier.

I found out the road to Cottonwood trailhead had been groomed on Feb 16, though there had been a major storm in the cascades since then. So there was a bit of uncertainty if travel would be difficult on the road with deep snow and blowdowns. I decided to pack my chainsaw and ax to be prepared just in case.

For gear we decided to bring the full mixed climbing kit with technical tools, 60m rope, rock pro, pitons, and pickets. I recalled the upper face of Fernow was 3rd class in the summer, but some areas were a bit exposed and Selena reported some 4th class moves on the east ridge. My rule of thumb is if a route is 4th class or exposed 3rd class in summer then I bring a rope and pro in winter. I generally appreciate protection if I’m climbing icy/snowy exposed rock in ski boots and crampons and hooking ledges with tools.

Friday night we drove to the Entiat Sno Park and slept in the forester. The weather was supposed to be clear all weekend, and our Saturday objective of getting to base camp was not very time sensitive, so we got a somewhat leisurely start Saturday morning.

We had the snowmobile loaded up and moving by a bit after sunrise. It felt weird snowmobiling in the daylight. I usually snowmobile in to a trailhead before dawn and ride out well after sunset. The road was actually very smooth, though icy, for the first 10 miles or so to the north fork turnoff. I deployed both sets of scratchers and had no trouble with overheating. I think it helped that the sled was transporting just two people instead of three. (My last snowmobile trip to Trinity trailhead I had a lot of overheating issues and we were a group of three then.)

The road was a bit rougher the last three miles, but we made it to the trailhead in a total time 45 minutes, which was pretty efficient. We soon unloaded the sled and packed up our packs. I signed us in at the trailhead, and I noticed the previous sign-in was from early December, which appeared to be the last date the road was driveable to there. And the next previous sign in was actually from me, back in late October when I took my dog Lily to hike up Duncan hill.

By 7:30am we were skinning up the trail. Travel was surprisingly fast. The snow was very firm but our skins still gripped well. We made good time up to the Duncan Hill turnoff, then to the Myrtle Lake turnoff and the wilderness boundary. I recalled back in May I had ridden my mountain bike in to the boundary there and continued on foot afterwards to climb Buckskin. Apparently motorized vehicles are allowed in to the wilderness boundary, and I’ve heard

of people dirt biking in to Myrtle Lake. In theory I thought I could have legally snowmobiled in to there, but there is a long stretch where the trail traverses a steep hill before Myrtle Lake, and that would have been very tricky on a snowmobile. Plus, I follow a self-imposed rule of only snowmobiling on roads, and doing human-powered travel past the trailheads in the winter.

We continued through a big open burn zone with great views up towards South Spectacle Butte and Mt Maude. At the Ice Creek confluence we continued right up the Entiat River. We soon reached patches of unburned trees, and then rounded the corner around Pt 7030. By 3:30pm we finally popped out at the base of the Entiat Glacier and dropped our gear at the highest trees around 5500ft.

There was still daylight left and we considered moving camp up to the pass above. But we were also kind of tired from the approach. The ridge camp would be windier and we’d spend a lot of time melting snow, while the valley camp had running water and shelter from trees. So we decided to pitch camp in the trees.

The water source nearby was a bit tricky to access. It was at the bottom of a snow canyon with 10ft high snow walls on the sides. But I had brought some extra paracord for just this situation. I tied the paracord to my pole, then a 15ft length of cord to a caribbeaner, which I clipped to my nalgene lid. Then I cast the nalgene into the creek like I was fishing. After bobbing it around a bit I got it full of water, then reeled it back in by spinning the hiking pole. I repeated this for all four nalgenes, and then we had plenty of water with no need to melt snow!

We cooked up some ramen noodles and pad thai and were in bed shortly after sunset.

Sunday was expected to be a big day so we were up and moving by 2:30am. The snow was an icy sun crust on top of powder, and we skinned up as high as possible with ski crampons. But that got insecure on the steeper slopes. So we ditched the skis and continued in crampons. We were worried the whole upper slope might be this breakable crust condition, which would be difficult to ski down, so we decided the best option was to just leave the skis.

Trail breaking was difficult, and we were sinking in to nearly our knees at times. We moved over to an old avy slide path and it improved a bit. We switched out frequently, and eventually made it to the 7,200ft ridge by 4:45am. It was unclear if following the ridge crest would be possible, and we considered traversing around on a gentle face. But the trail breaking would have been very slow traversing, so we decided to try the ridge and hope for better conditions since it wasn’t a south face.

The ridge had some steep sections, but the snow wasn’t too bad. At times we crossed over onto the north face and the sun crust was not present, making for easier travel. Sunrise soon came, and the views were amazing down the valley to the east. We also got great views of the north face of Maude across the valley. It looked pretty intimidating, but I hear some people ski the face if the snow conditions are right.

Interestingly, we saw a set of day old ski tracks on the ridge around 8200ft. It looked like they had come from the Holden side. We followed them to 8,400ft on the ridge, but then they disappeared. I could see how this could be a fun day-trip ski objective from Holden to this ridge crest. Though I haven’t heard of anyone continuing to the summit in the winter. Indeed, it’s not a trivial endeavor.

By 9000ft we traversed below a subpeak and gained the narrowing east ridge. It soon got steep enough that we ditched our poles and took out the ice tools. We traversed around a gendarme, then kicked steps back up to the ridge. We then downclimbed the side of a big cornice, then traversed around the north side of another gendarme. We had to do a short 4th class downclimb to gain a notch on the other side, and then we were at the base of the summit block.

The southeast face route looked familiar and was less snowy than I had anticipated. But it was still covered in ice and snow, and was long enough that roping up seemed like a good idea.

We’d brought my 60m half rope, which has become my standard choice in the winter. It’s long enough to do full 30m rappels, but much lighter than a regular single rope. Then the leader can tie in the middle and lead on two strands. Nick tied in the middle and I started belaying him up.

Unlike our last trip, Devore Peak, this time the rock actually had cracks. This meant we could get gear in and use the tools to hook cracks instead of purely relying on our feet. We simulclimbed up, with a few cams in between. Nick led up and left,  then made a beeline for the summit. The route got a bit steeper near the top and I stopped to belay.

Nick then made it all the way to the summit and belayed me off a slung block. It was pretty fun climbing up the steeper section. I could actually hook cracks and do proper mixed climbing. This route was slightly different than the one I’d done in the summer, but was pretty fun.

By 8:30am we were both on the summit and stopped to take pictures. The skies were clear as forecast and we had excellent views of Maude and Seven Fingered Jack to the south, Bonanza to the northeat, and Dumbell and Greenwood to the west. Rainer and Glacier Peak were visible a bit farther away.

I excavated around a bit and, surprisingly, found the summit register. I rarely find registers in the winter with all the snow (and with registers mysteriously disappearing from summits recently), so this was a treat. I signed us in and took a picture. I didn’t see any other sign ins from winter. The last one was from early october 2021.

After 10 minutes we decided to head down. We slung the block on the summit and rapped back down the way we came. I bet people scrambling Fernow in the summer will be surprised to see the rap anchor there, but it totally makes sense to rappel the route in winter.

At the end of the rope we slung another horn, did a diagonal rappel down and right, then slung one final horn to rap down to our stashed gear on the ledge. I then packed the rope away and we continued down the east ridge. It was fun climbing up the 4th class step, then on the other side we did some au-cheval moves on a narrow section instead of traversing around.

We eventually downclimbed back to our poles, then harnessed the tools. It was fast going following our tracks back across the broadening ridge, and we soon plunge stepped back to our skis.

By then the sun was getting higher in the sky and had warmed up the south slope to make a nice corn surface. The skiing was actually surprisingly fun in the fresh corn, especially since we had expected to be skiing through breakable crust.

By noon we made our last turns back to our campsite, then packed up. I went on one more fishing trip to the stream to fill up nalgenes, and then we headed out. The terrain was just steep enough and the snow just fast enough that we could ski and scoot down in downhill mode.

We made it all the way to rounding the corner around point 7030 before it leveled out too much. There we transitioned to skins and proceeded a bit slower. We continued down the river, but then heard an unexpected noise. It sounded like engines. Uphill above us we saw three snowmobiles blasting through the trees! They were heading up the river, and I assume their destination was the Entiat Glacier. I don’t think they saw us, since we were kind of hidden in the trees.

I was amazed how they could get in that far. I assumed the long sidehill traverse just before Myrtle Lake would be too difficult, but I guess I’m not very skilled on a snowmobile yet. (Note: they’re technically not allowed to go past the wilderness boundary, which is just past Myrtle Lake).

We skinned down to the ice creek confluence, and then I assumed we would have to continue skinning the rest of the way. (Back in December 2020 I had skinned the whole way out from Pinnacle from this area since the snow was soft and breakable crust, so I assumed we would also have to skin this time). But Nick suggested we try skiing. The snow was firm, with a corn layer on top, and travel could potentially be fast.

This was a great idea, and indeed we were able to glide down going at least twice the speed of skinning.  Aftet an hour or so we reached the wilderness boundary and then heard the snowmobilers coming back. They went right by us and were friendly, but understandably didn’t want to talk for too long. They needed to get back while the snow was still slushy to get through the sidehilling section. Once it turned to ice at night the traverse would be much more difficult.

We followed their tracks back and it made travel and navigation much easier. We didn’t have to look around for the trail since we could just follow their tracks. We noticed on some of the traverse section they had leaned on the edge of the tread to sidehill (a difficult technique). But when it got really steep we saw they had shoveled out a bench in the snow and even chainsawed out a blowdown. I bet that trip had taken some serious planning.

We made quick progress past the sidehilling section and just after sunset reached the snowmobile. I carefully strapped all the gear down and it started without issue. I think since I’ve been more careful this year about hitting all the rpm bands when I ride it has helped prevent clogging and spark plug fouling. The snow was still a bit slushy and helped smooth out the shallow whumphs. I was able to make much better time going out, and we made it back to the car in just over 30 minutes.

After loading up we started the long drive home, arriving around 2am.

Movie of the trip:

 

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