Napeequa Peak

Napeequa Peak (8,073ft)

April 10, 2022

18 miles skiing, 40 miles snowmobiling

Eric and Nick

I recently got back from climbing peaks in western africa and was itching to get back to some good old cold snowy mountains after my time in the Sahara Desert. I wanted to climb a WA top 200 peak and also use my snowmobile for the approach. Nick was interested in a peak that was at least a little bit technical. Napeequa peak was about the only one that fit all these constraints, and it sounded fun.

It was a top 200 peak I hadn’t yet done, and the approach road to the trailhead generally stays snowed over into early May. Based on recent satellite images it appeared the chiwawa river road was still snowed over with good coverage for about 20 miles from the trinity trailhead, so the snowmobile would come in handy. We found conflicting reports on how difficult the summit scramble was, but Becky says class 4, so that meant rope and mixed climbing gear for the expected winter conditions.

I had actually previously tried and failed twice to climb Napeequa. In June 2021 I biked in to Trinity from the gated road and surveyed the true summit locations of Buck and Berge, but a whiteout set in before I could get to Napeequa and I skipped it. Then in October 2021 I hiked and bushwhacked in to the most remote point in Glacier Peak Wilderness. On the way out I planned to tag Napeequa, but it started raining hard and I decided to skip it again. On each of those trips Napeequa had been a bonus point and not the main objective, and that contributed to a lower chance of success. This time Napeequa would be the only objective to climb, so hopefully that would increase chance of success.

I had recently got a toyota tundra and this would be the maiden voyage for it with the snowmobile. I’ve previously towed my snowmobile in a trailer with my forester, but it kind of struggles getting over the passes since it’s not actually rated to tow the weight that I tow. And it’s a bit tricky to turn the trailer around on a narrow forest road. But with the truck I know it is rated to carry a heavy load over the passes, and I can just fit the snowmobile in the back of the truck to avoid towing a trailer.

Saturday afternoon I transferred my snowmobile from the trailer to the back of the truck, and this took a bit of ingenuity. My truck still doesn’t have a hitch (I’m working on that), so to prevent the trailer from flipping over when I moved the snowmobile off it I needed to put a few jack stands on the back and wheel chocks on the wheels. I then lower the back gate and scoot the snowmobile halfway back. Then I back the truck up and secure the ramp from the middle of the trailer to the truck bed. I then ratchet strap the ramp to the truck so it doesn’t move, then ride the snowmobile up the ramp. It all somehow works and I don’t have to ride the snowmobile around in the gravel lot and make a mess.

I picked up Nick and we headed up to Stevens Pass. The road signs said “traction tires advised” and speed limit 50mph, so it appeared conditions wouldn’t be too bad. But we were in the middle of a winter-like storm and the road east of the pass was basically a sheet of ice. I inched down slowly but was still slipping even with winter tires. Then we came upon a 10-car backup stopped by a jack-knifed tractor trailer and a few other stuck cars.

We stopped for a while as a tow truck and police car came by. I had my forester tire chains, but they were too small for the truck tires. So we strapped two chains together with ski straps and put them on one wheel. Once the tow truck left cars started inching by, and we slowly made it down the slope in 4L and 1st gear. There was a huge line of cars waiting to go up, and I think it took a long time for things to clear out.

We finally made it to the fish lake sno park, which was melted out. The last grooming had been April 1, but the “no wheeled vehicles” sign was still in the middle of the road. The road was half pavement, though, so we drove around the sign until continuous snow started about a half mile later. There we turned the truck around and unloaded the sled.

John pulled up shortly after and very generously offered that we could sleep at his cabin that night. We quickly loaded up the sled and followed him a few miles down the road to his awesome cabin. It was pretty neat that the cabin was only snowmobile accessible, and it wasn’t yet possible to drive there.

We got a few hours of sleep, then were up and moving by 3am. It was snowing hard, and I noted that this was the first time all year I’d snowmobiled while it was actually snowing. I guess I usually choose my location to be where it is dry. I had to go kind of slow in the heavy snow in the dark, since I was worried about blowdowns from the storm earlier in the week. I’d brought a chainsaw and ax just in case.

The riding was smooth for the first 10 miles with a couple fresh snowmobile tracks, but then it got rougher with whoomphs and meltout sections. I had both sets of scratchers down and had recently mounted a rear rack to separate the packs from the tunnel, and we didn’t overheat at all. The fresh snow probably helped with this too.

We got to the trinity trailhead around 4:15am and were soon skinning up. The fresh snow was deep and progress was a bit slow. We followed the old road grade until the buck creek turnoff then continued following our own route through the open trees. We crossed the chiwawa river near the washed out bridge on a narrow and tricky log, then continued up. There was an excellent snow bridge to cross Buck creek and we then entered the cirque below berge.

The north face of Buck loomed above us, and there were a few impressive ice lines going up. I think this was the Wild Side route. Luckily all the slide alder I remembered from June was covered up and travel was smooth, though we were sinking in to our knees breaking trail even with skis on.

We stopped briefly at an open water hole and I tied my nalgene on paracord attached to my pole. I then cast in like I was fishing and was able to fill a few liters. I’m not sure how we would have accessed the water any other way. Progress was slow up the gully to the Berge-Cleator col and we switched out frequently. The sun popped out and heated up the south face, causing some small roller balls. This brief warming would later change the powder snow to cascade concrete, which unfortunately would be difficult to ski back down.

By 10:30am we crested the Berge-Cleator col and got a great view of Napeequa. It was completely clear in the high pass area, and we paused to admire the view. I had just been to High Pass in February, but I had passed through at 3am and hadn’t gotten a view. We skied down to a bowl, then skinned back up the east ridge of Pt 7529. By then we were socked in a whiteout, which would last a while.

We traversed around Pt 7529 and Cirque Mountain and over to the east face of Napeequa. We zig zagged up the steepening face until we found signs of wind slab. There we ditched the skis and wallowed up the snow among the rocks on the east ridge. The first 100 vertical feet were slow going, but then the angle eased and we crested the summit ridge. There we switched to crampons and took out the ice tools.

The ridge was a sharp knife edge of rock, but was within our comfort level to not bring the rope out. We hooked ledges and kicked steps in the snow and by 3:30pm topped out on the summit. Unfortunately it was still whiteout, but there were brief breaks in the low clouds enough for us to make out the napeequa valley to the southeast and berge across high pass. I bet the view over to glacier peak would have been spectacular if the clouds cleared, but we didn’t get to see it.

We soon headed back down, carefully downclimbing the snow slope and traversing the knife edge ridge. We then plunge stepped back to our skis. We took turns skiing back, and could just barely make out our up tracks in the whiteout. I was happy to be able to see them for navigation.

We skied down to high pass, then back up to the cleator-buck col. By then the skies cleared back up and

we had one last good view of Napeequa. The skiing was fun powder down from the pass, but as we got lower the snow got thicker. My skis are pretty short so I had to lean back the whole time to keep the tips up. Down near the bottom the snow turned to cascade concrete. It was easy to get the tips stuck and then come to a stop in the thick glop.

We carefully made it down, then at the bottom of the cirque transitioned back to skins. At Buck Creek we stopped at the snow bridge to go fishing for some more water. Again I’m not sure how we would have accessed this water without tying the nalgene to a cord on the end of the ski pole and casting it in. The snow walls on the side of the creek were at least 5 ft tall.

The ski out went smoothely, and we had no problem on the tricky crossing of Chiwawa River. Eventually just before dark we reached the lights of the Trinity buildings and arrived at the snowmobile. I didn’t see any other tracks in there, so it appeared we were the only ones to ride in there that day.

We loaded up and the sled started no problem. The snow was still soft so I wasn’t too concerned about overheating. The ride out went smoothly at first, though there were a few sidehilling sections that I had Nick get off for so I could balance through. Then there was one major meltout section. The road was melted down to gravel in the middle but there were steep snow banks on

the side. I had Nick get off again and I tried to make it through, but the sled tipped over in the transition.

I killed the engine and we rolled it over and pushed it up the side. It had a bit of trouble starting afterwards (I think since the gas tank had turned on its side), but I eventually got it running. We finally hit the smoother section of road after chikamin and made it to the truck by 10:30pm. I took a little while loading up since I’m kind of new to this method of transporting the sled, but it all worked out. We then drove back home, and after taking a while to unload the sled in storage I finally got home around 4am.

Movie of the trip:

 

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