Home > Trip Reports > July 1, 2006, Mt. Maude, North Face

July 1, 2006, Mt. Maude, North Face

7/1/06
WA Cascades West Slopes Central
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Posted by philfort on 7/1/06 11:43pm
Ryan, Greg and I headed in to ski the "uber-classic" North Face yesterday.  Suprisingly, there was still quite a bit of snow in Phelps Creek, especially when you approach the Leroy Creek turn off.  The creeks were raging, and were all wet crossings (bring sandals!).

Up in the basin, Ryan was feeling the effects of lack of sleep, and turned around.  Greg and I continued up the south ridge, and reached the summit just past noon.  Up high the snowpack seems a little less than last year.

From the summit, the north face appears terrifyingly steep (we were ready to bail) - but once when you walk down and look in, much more moderate (ok, its not so bad).  It seemed kind of melted out, but we were able to see what we thought was a continuous line down to the Entiat Glacier.



The top 500ft was excellent, but a bit punchy.  Down lower the aspect changed, and the snow became quite sluffy and runneled.  It was rather unpleasant trying to manage the sluff while skiing in between two runnels.  The route down here is pretty traversey too, not very fall line.




I wanted to ski down to the Entiat glacier, and cut back to Ice Lakes, because 1) it looks easy on a map, and 2) it provides a longer run than if you truncate it and climb back to the Maude-7FJ col.  This worked, and the lower stuff was some of the better skiing.  Overall the route had too much traversing, not enough fall-line skiing.  Maybe with more snow it would be better.

Skinning back to the Ice Lakes col was pretty tedious though - the glacier is very "knolly" and its hard to see ahead.  There are crevasses but nothing bad.  The Entiat Icefall was impressive (looks skiable too, but too melted out now).




Once at the col, the skied/skinned a mile across Ice Lakes basin (still snow-covered of course), and up to another col, down into a basin to connect to the route in Bergdorfer's book, and finally over a ridge back into Leroy Ck Basin.  A nice "tour-de-Maude".

On the way out I was constantly attacked by caterpillars hanging from the trees.  I was covered in them.

[Edit: modified title]
author=philfort link=topic=5043.msg21232#msg21232 date=1151851433">
Suprisingly, there was still quite a bit of snow in Phelps Creek, especially when you approach the Leroy Creek turn off. 

  Up high the snowpack seems a little less than last year.



Also of interest, whereas Jason Hummel's TR from almost the exact same time last year mentions gazillions of ladybugs on the summit I didn't see a single one yesterday.  More riddles in the summit ladybug orgy phenomenon.  Leads me to wonder how the ladybugs decide which summits to congregate on and when to do it.  From my limited knowledge of the central nervous system of lower invertebrates I'm guessing they don't have a map of the Cascades stored in there somehow.  Maybe some sort of chemical signal is involved? 

Right on Phil, way to get after it!  I had a leisurely good time at Ben's wedding in Bellingham with Sky & others.   

author=philfort link=topic=5043.msg21232#msg21232 date=1151851433]
Up high the snowpack seems a little less than last year.


From your photos it is hard to tell, but I'd say the face has about the same, if not more snowpack on it than last year at this time.  Good stuff!

I'm totally jealous.  Stupid weddings and moms!  At least one of Heather's vows was to encourage Ben to ski with us more...

Nice, nice, nice!  :)

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2006-07-02 06:43:53