May 3, 2006, Hardscrabble Creek to Big Snow
5/3/06
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As I just mentioned in Charles' Big Snow thread, Big Snow was a lot less lonesome than expected this week. I wanted to share some details about our trip in case other folk are interested in the Hardscrabble/East Ridge route on Big Snow.
First, the infamous Middle Fork road. Dave and I left Seattle at ~5:15am and left the truck at 8am (including a stop at the gas station), underscoring the fact that travel on this washboard takes some serious time. I'd been wanting to do this trip for some time, but the low clearance on my Subaru Legacy has kept me away. This trip was made possible by a 4wd Explorer that I rented from "Rent-a-wreck" for $50. I'm pretty happy with how it all worked out. I never would have gotten the Legacy up there, but had no problem w/ the Explorer. Something like an Outback would probably be fine, but might take some undercarriage abuse. There was a short ~25' section of mud that could cause hassles for 2wd.
I'd read online that the way to get up to Hardscrabble Lakes is to follow an overgrown logging road. We identified the logging road correctly (it happened to be at the snowline, ~2400'). You can tell the proper place because there is a HUGE log (5' diameter) on the right side of the road where the logging road starts. We started up the road but decided to just head uphill when it looked like there was some blowdown over the road. What was I thinking? 1.5hrs later we reached the bottom of the hanging valley. There was continuous snow from here, but it's going fast. Getting from here to the lower lake was more of a hassle than expected because of tight trees. Staying high on the W side of the valley on the way out was a bit of a help. Other than that travel was fairly easy and as Charles mentioned, the skiing was great. Here's a picture of Dave making turns near the top:
On the way out we found the right logging road and felt like fools when we realized that the road is actually a pseudo-maintained trail that was actually quite pleasant. It took us <45min to descend what had taken 1.5hrs on the way up.
As Charles mentioned, the S couloir was full of debris. Additionally, it was mostly cliffed out. I think you can get through the lower cliffs on the climber's right side of the chute as seen in the picture below:
First, the infamous Middle Fork road. Dave and I left Seattle at ~5:15am and left the truck at 8am (including a stop at the gas station), underscoring the fact that travel on this washboard takes some serious time. I'd been wanting to do this trip for some time, but the low clearance on my Subaru Legacy has kept me away. This trip was made possible by a 4wd Explorer that I rented from "Rent-a-wreck" for $50. I'm pretty happy with how it all worked out. I never would have gotten the Legacy up there, but had no problem w/ the Explorer. Something like an Outback would probably be fine, but might take some undercarriage abuse. There was a short ~25' section of mud that could cause hassles for 2wd.
I'd read online that the way to get up to Hardscrabble Lakes is to follow an overgrown logging road. We identified the logging road correctly (it happened to be at the snowline, ~2400'). You can tell the proper place because there is a HUGE log (5' diameter) on the right side of the road where the logging road starts. We started up the road but decided to just head uphill when it looked like there was some blowdown over the road. What was I thinking? 1.5hrs later we reached the bottom of the hanging valley. There was continuous snow from here, but it's going fast. Getting from here to the lower lake was more of a hassle than expected because of tight trees. Staying high on the W side of the valley on the way out was a bit of a help. Other than that travel was fairly easy and as Charles mentioned, the skiing was great. Here's a picture of Dave making turns near the top:
On the way out we found the right logging road and felt like fools when we realized that the road is actually a pseudo-maintained trail that was actually quite pleasant. It took us <45min to descend what had taken 1.5hrs on the way up.
As Charles mentioned, the S couloir was full of debris. Additionally, it was mostly cliffed out. I think you can get through the lower cliffs on the climber's right side of the chute as seen in the picture below:
Thanks for the report (skiing and road) and nice photos, Peter. So your description of the way to know the right logging road (the big cut tree) is still correct?
When you say that the snowline was at 2400', do you mean that was where snow prevented driving any further, or that was where you first saw snow along the road? Curious because when I checked with the RS the day before they said the road was drivable to the end, which is ~3000 feet.
I've also read of approaching by simply going right up along Hardscrabble Creek from the trail where it crosses the creek. As I recall from fall hikes, that slope is fairly open (probably some rock hopping) but only abour 400 feet to the edge of the hanging valley.
When you say that the snowline was at 2400', do you mean that was where snow prevented driving any further, or that was where you first saw snow along the road? Curious because when I checked with the RS the day before they said the road was drivable to the end, which is ~3000 feet.
I've also read of approaching by simply going right up along Hardscrabble Creek from the trail where it crosses the creek. As I recall from fall hikes, that slope is fairly open (probably some rock hopping) but only abour 400 feet to the edge of the hanging valley.
In terms of driving, there was 1+ft of snow just past where we parked. It was continuous from there as far as I could tell, but I didn't walk down the road. There were tire tracks continuing, so some people obviously drove further. The altitude I gave was rough, based on my barometric altimeter which I hadn't calibrated and on gawking at the map. Internet surfing suggests that the start of the logging road (where we parked) is ~0.5mi from the actual end of the road.
Yes, the logging road definitely starts directly across the road from the 5ft diameter log (which is on the right as you're driving up). The first section of logging road (from the car) was overgrown and had downed logs. We followed the logging road all the way to the car, but I did notice that there seemed to be a trail that avoided this nastiness by heading directly down from the logging road to the Middle Fork road several hundred feet before the roads actually meet up. So probably if you park at the big log and walk a couple hundred feet further up the Middle fork road there'll be a path on your left that leads up to the logging road...
Yes, I'd also read of going directly up the creek (this is what the Volken book says) but a friend of mine complained so loudly about his experience doing this approach years ago that I was too terrified to try it. I don't see any reason to, though, since the logging road is so nice.
Yes, the logging road definitely starts directly across the road from the 5ft diameter log (which is on the right as you're driving up). The first section of logging road (from the car) was overgrown and had downed logs. We followed the logging road all the way to the car, but I did notice that there seemed to be a trail that avoided this nastiness by heading directly down from the logging road to the Middle Fork road several hundred feet before the roads actually meet up. So probably if you park at the big log and walk a couple hundred feet further up the Middle fork road there'll be a path on your left that leads up to the logging road...
Yes, I'd also read of going directly up the creek (this is what the Volken book says) but a friend of mine complained so loudly about his experience doing this approach years ago that I was too terrified to try it. I don't see any reason to, though, since the logging road is so nice.
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