June 2, 2018, Overcoat Peak

Skiing Overcoat Peak made for a long day with lots of route finding/multisport shenanigans. We didn't see a single person all day and the scenery is stunning so it was totally all worth it. Total stats: 16 miles and 1400 ft of biking, 13.5 miles and 5800 ft of hiking/skiing climbing in just under 15 hrs.

Andy, Eliot and I started from the Dingford Creek Trailhead at 6:30 AM to bike the 8 miles on NF-5620 to the Dutch Miller Gap trailhead. The road gets a bit rougher once you pass the Goldmyer turnoff which made for a fast, fun descent on the return. Since you can stash gear at the TH, I'd recommend bring chammy's and at least one beer per person for the ride back. We hiked ~4 miles on the trail until we could see the large cliff rising above the south side of the river at the base of Overcoat. From here, we walked through some thick alder to ford the Middle Fork and get to talus field at the base of the cliffs.


Eliot barely poking through the alder

We followed the Volken book recommendation to climb the couloir instead of going up the Overcoat drainage. The couloir likely would have provided a better ascent route if there was snow on it, but apparently it turns into two scrambly waterfalls divided up by a short scree field in late spring. We exited the upper waterfall towards the right hand side by crawling through some very thick evergreens.


The couloir follows the left snowfinger up to the waterfall (not in the photo)


Coming out of the trees

We started skinning shortly after gaining snow and traveling to the summit from here was really straightforward.


Looking towards Overcoat


Andy looking up at the peak he's been hoping to ski for years!

We booted up the snow finger to the summit climb in good booting conditions. The summit climb is mostly protectable fourth class scrambling once you get around to the northeast side of the rock pyramid. Once down from the summit, the snow finger provided an awesome ski line!

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Views from the summit!


Ain't nothin' like steep corn!

We decided to head down the overcoat drainage instead of our couloir ascent route. Since both of the two creeks in the main drainage turned into cliffy heavy-flowing waterfalls, we were glad to find a steep, but descendable route through some open trees. From here, we forded the river again (much colder at 5PM than in the morning). This crossing was waist deep instead of the previous mid-thigh but still very crossable. The trail was relatively easy to find again after crossing the river and more thick alder. From there only 12 miles back to the car!