Snowfield Peak Winter Ascent

Snowfield Peak (8,347ft)

Jan 28-29, 2023

20 miles, 10kft gain

Our original plan for the weekend was to go for some objectives up Cascade River Road. We had heard that there was a boulder blocking the road at milepost 6, but that it might be possible to squeeze around it in a truck. After the boulder we expected a lot of blowdowns on the road, since it isn’t officially maintained in the winter. I had previously climbed Forbidden Peak in January 2022 and had to snowmobile up from milepost 5, chainsawing out lots of blowdowns on the way.

This time we would bring multiple chainsaws, including a big one Talon would bring for any huge blowdowns. Based on recent NOHRSC images I expected deep snow to start around milepost 16, and we hoped to start snowmobiling from there all the way to Cascade Pass trailhead, clearing blowdowns along the way if needed. NOHRSC was showing 4-8″ of snow between MP 10-12, but I figured I could drive through that with the truck. By MP 16 Ryan and I would ride on my snowmobile and I’d tow Talon like a water skier on his split board.

Friday evening we got to Marblemount and started up Cascade River Road shortly after dark. The brown NPS sign at the start of the road said it was open all the way, but then just before milepost 6 we encountered two small “road closed” signs on stands in the road. We thought this just referred to the boulder making things difficult, so we continued on to scope out the boulder. It covered most of the road, but I was able to barely squeeze around it completely on the pavement with my truck.

Beyond that we thought we were good to go, as long as we could clear some blowdowns out. We proceeded slowly, and it looked like someone had beat us to clearing blowdowns. There were lots of trees across the road, but they were mostly cleared out. Often we would have to stop to clear small debris, but the big trees had been sawed out already. One tree we squeezed under had just a few inches of clearance on the top (we were about 6.5′ tall with the sled on the back). A few trees had branches hanging low and we powered through these like going through a car wash. Some sections were extremely narrow and we just had a few inches clearance on each side.

Eventually we reached around milepost 12.75 and there was a tree across the road that needed sawed. I had a small 10″ chainsaw and Talon was supposed to meet us there with a bigger saw. So we decided to do some grunt work clearing of smaller debris to make things more efficient when he came. We also scouted out ahead a bit. We found three trees about 1-2′ diameter, then a big 3′ tree with the entire root system laying in the middle of the road. That would be the crux.

It appeared if we sawed out the trunk we could barely squeeze by the right side leaving the root system there. We walked ahead another quarter mile and didn’t see any more blowdowns, so that appeared, perhaps, to be the end. We decided to make the crux as easy as possible for Talon with his big chainsaw, so we cleared a bunch of smaller debris there. I then jogged back to the truck to get my ax to remove branches.

I saw a set of lights approaching the truck, and was initially relieved that Talon had arrived. But then a set of red and blue lights turned on and started flashing. My excitetment immediately turned to dread. It appeared we were in trouble.

Two officers stepped out and walked towards me. They had USFS Law Enforcement uniforms on and were driving a USFS truck.

We talked to them for a while and they said the road was closed to motorized vehicles and we were not allowed to be there. They said the road was not safe after the landslides that brought the boulder down. They seemed sympathetic to the fact that we were putting in effort to clear the road from blowdowns, but we still had to leave. They then turned around and drove back while we loaded back up.

I believe someone living in Marblemount or along cascade river road must have called them to report us. We turned the truck around (the road was barely wide enough), then headed back out. We soon made it to Marblemount and started discussing a backup plan. It turned out Talon wouldn’t be able to join us after all that weekend, so it would just be me and Ryan.

Snowfield peak was just up highway 20 and was a bulger peak I still needed in the winter. We had each already climbed snowfield in April, and we expected conditions to be similar to now. The weather was supposed to be decent there over the weekend also. We already had all the gear required, so we decided to go for it.

We had heard of an attempt on snowfield a few weeks earlier where the party had trouble getting above treeline and had to bail. I had my ascent plates, though, which should help with the steep bushwhack to get to treeline. Ryan was interested in a possible direct route up Colonial Creek to avoid the difficult bushwhack of the summer route. But we hadn’t really done any planning of this route, and the added uncertainty seemed like it would decrease chance of success. I had already done the summer route twice in April, once in May, and once in September, so felt very confident with it. So we decided to go for the summer route.

In theory it would be feasible to do car-to-car, but with the uncertainty of our speed on the bushwhack we decided to go for an overnight trip. That had the added benefit of being able to camp above treeline on the Neve Glacier, which would be very fun.

We drove up to the Pyramid Lake trailhead and slept there that night. Saturday morning we were up and moving by 4:30am. We started up in trail runners on the bare trail until we reached continuous snow at the first creek crossing. There we hid our shoes in the trees and started booting up in ski boots. After about 10 minutes we switched to skis and skinned the rest of the way to Pyramid Lake.

We topped off water there, then A-framed the skis since we knew the next bit would be steep. The snow was partially melted out and icy on the steep slopes above the lake. It was consolidated enough that we were able to boot up easily. The slope angle then eased up a bit and we started skinning.

The skinning became heroic at times, but was mostly manageable. We switched back and forth a few times between boots+crampons and skis, generally making excellent time. At the final steep section around 5,000 the snow got very steep and unconsolidated. I whipped out my ascent plates and they were the perfect tool for the job. Ascent plates are kind of like snowshoes but they don’t pivot at the toe, and there is no toe sticking out. They are just a flat rectangular sheet of metal sandwiched between the crampon and the boot. The crampon front points stick out and they are perfect for climbing steep snow.

I continued up higher until the slope angle eased, and then we skinned up to the base of Pyramid Peak at 5,800ft. The next section was a steep traverse below Pyramid Peak that required stable snow, which we had. We spaced out for safety, with Ryan going first and me following. We kept skins on to avoid a tricky transition mid traverse. I recalled traversing in May in the dark and making a transition in the middle. My partner’s ski took a tumble down the face and we were lucky to recover it. I did not want to repeat that event.

We soon made it across and stopped for a break at Colonial Lake. The skies had been partly sunny until then, but we soon got engulfed in a whiteout. Fortunately we had each loaded our GPS tracks from previous trips. I took over navigation and forged ahead in the whiteout navigating by my watch GPS. We crossed the frozen lake, then zig zagged up the slope to Neve Col. It was very windy there and we quickly transitioned to ski mode and skied down the other side.

Based on the predicted wind direction we expected this aspect to be the most sheltered on the route, so we found a flat protected area and stopped to dig out a tent platform. We had toyed with the idea of summitting that day, but there were so many uncertainties in our speed on the bushwhack that we had deemed it unlikely. There we were, though, at camp by 1:30pm with enough daylight left to make the summit. It was still a whiteout, though, so we resigned ourselves to killing time in the tent that afternoon.

After diggout out and taking a snack break we noticed some brief fleeting clearings above, which gradually got larger. By 2pm we could see the summit starting to poke out of the clouds. We estimated 2 hours from camp to summit and 30 minutes back, so with sunset around 5pm we could maybe make it work.

We ditched overnight gear, repacked, and roped up for the glacier. I remembered being there in September 2018 and seeing a maze of gaping crevasses, so I was happy to have the rope. Ryan led the way as the summit got more and more in the clear with the sun shining overhead. We weaved our way up the glacier and approached the col near the Horseman. But, just as soon as the clearing had appeared it then disappeared. The wind picked up and we were stuck in another whiteout. We had considered climbing directly up the north face, but with the possibility of cross loading from the wind and route finding issues due to low visibility we decided to go for the standard summer route.

We crossed the col to the south side of the horseman to get out of the wind a bit. At that point navigation was simple, though. We just had to follow the west ridge to the summit, the same route we had previously done multiple times. It is definitely a huge advantage for these winter ascents to have already climbed the same route once or twice before in the summer.

We ditched the ski and rope, put crampons on, and started marching up the rime and thin snowcover. I kicked steps up to near the summit, but got turned around at a dead end. I then down climbed, traversed delicately into a gully to the left, then climbed up to the obvious notch. This notch was the key to the standard summer route. I peered over the edge and it looked a lot steeper and trickier than I had recalled. In the summer it was an easy 3rd class down climb, but in the winter things get more difficult.

I contemplated scrambling the ridge proper, but then I recalled trying this in April and finding it sketchy. We did have the rope and pickets, though. So we decided to rap down the notch. Ryan built a two-picket snow anchor and we tied the single strand of rope to that. We would then leave the rope to prussik back up on the way out.

I rapped down first, then Ryan followed. The 30m rope was plenty long for that rappel.

On the bottom we traversed a mellow snow slope, then kicked steps up the other side. I regained the west ridge proper and crossed over briefly to the north face, then back to the south face. By 4:30pm we tagged the summit.

It was covered in a thick layer of rime and snow, and there were unfortunately no views. Luckily, though, the wind had mysteriously died down and it was actually relatively pleasant. We hung out for 5 minutes taking pictures, but our time until sunset we getting slim. It would be very tricky skiing out in the dark in a whiteout.

We downclimbed the route, then took turns climbing back up to the notch with a prussik as backup. I recalled doing this unroped in April, but the snow was much deeper then, making the climb easier. The coverage was thin this time and it was a bit sketchy. On the top we broke down the anchor, packed up, and hiked back down to the skis.

The wind picked up then and I was happy to have my clear goggles to put on. Ryan led the way skiing down and we could just barely make out our up tracks. We made fun turns down the mellow glacier, and just barely got back to camp before needing the headlamps, around 5:15pm.

There we were treated to a brilliant sunset in a brief clearing to the west, looking out at Baker and the Pickets.

Ryan took over cooking duties and I set up our mega mid tent. I like that tent since it’s super light, requiring just two ski poles as the poles in the middle. It doesn’t have a floor so can be dug out in the inside. I then set up my sleeping bag inside a bivy sack with a vapor barrier liner inside. That way the bag would stay dry from tent snow and from perspiration, and hopefully keep me warmer. The forecast low that night was -5F, and we each just brough 0F sleeping bags, so we would be cutting it kind of close.

By 7:30pm we were curled up inside with two warm nalgenes each.

Sunday morning we got up a little before sunrise and I was kind of cold. I did occasional forced shivering, but had generally managed to get a good nights sleep. Ryan went outside to take pictures and I took my time inside eating and packing. The day dawned clear and we had excellent views of Snowfield.

We didn’t want to merely ski out with such nice weather, though, so we decided to ski Colonial Peak as a bonus point. We packed up all our gear, skinned up to Neve Col, then skied down the north side to Colonial Lake. There we ditched overnight gear and started skinning up the northwest face of Colonial. Ryan had a good summer route planned, and we made fast progress up to around 7000ft. But then the route started traversing above a cliff. We got a bit sketched out by some wind slab and decided to bail.

I think if Colonial had been a priority we would have planned it out more carefully. And in hindsight it looked like a safer winter route if we had gained the Neve-Colonial col and skinned up from there. But since we had already climbed our main objective we weren’t quite as motivated to get the bonus point peak.

So we turned around and had excellent skiing back down to the gear. Unfortunately my skis got frozen into walk mode, but I managed to get down anyways. We then packed up, transitioned to skins, and skinned across Colonial Lake. On the other side we finally emerged into sunshine and it made the single-digit temps feel much warmer. We took turns skinning the traverse across the base of Pyramid peak and up to 5800ft hump on the other side.

From there we switched to ski mode and skied down back into the trees. The skiing was great, with views of Ross Lake and the Hozomeens to the north. Back in the trees we had to transition back to bare booting to get down a few steep sections, then skied again back in the trees.

Finally once we got below about 4000ft we transitioned for good to booting. We made good time down to the lake, then found our shoes untouched lower down at the creek. We made it back to the truck by 3:30pm and then back to Seattle at a reasonable hour.

Movie of the trip:

 

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