Big Snow Mountain, May 25, 2007

Big Snow Mountain is one of my favorite mountains, partly because of it's dramatic buttresses and cliffs, it's remote feel given it's proximity to Seattle, the variety of it's various aspects, and it's fantastic views.  The looming gating of the Middle Fork Road at Dingford Creek will greatly increase it's remoteness and eliminate the easiest ski access, the Hardscrabble Lakes route.  That leaves the Lake Dorthy approach and the Dingford Creek route.  Having already done the former and finding it overly long, I convinced Pico to join me in exploring the later.  This route isn't short either, almost 6 miles to Myrtle Lake.  We decided to follow the trail to 3600', then headed for the left side of the prodominate, sharp ridge descending from the summit.  Our goal was the bench at lake level, and we did achieve it after some bushwhacking up a few cliff bands.  In retrospect the much easier access is to follow the outlet stream from Big Snow Lake, which is the route described in Beckey's.  Once gaining the bench, we proceeded for the ridge separating the lakes and followed that up until it merged with the broad slopes leading to the summit, where we found RonL's tracks from earlier.  The views from the summit were good, though a little hazy in the distance.  After a leisurely lunch on top we skied down.  It was softer at top, probably a residue of last weeks snow.  One little sluff I kicked off on a rollover surprised my with a knockdown when I unexpectedly turned right into it, but it was a short ride of 5' before it stopped.  Otherwise it was an excellent run down on a 30 degree slope.  We decided to try the outlet stream gully as our descent route, but had to boot it as there were gaps.  At one point I had to downclimb a waterfall to catch the packs and prepare a downstep off the snow to a boulder top for Pico.  Once we cleared that the going was good back down to Myrtle Lake, where we rested and refueled for the hike out.  The whole trip took us 15 hours for 2000' of skiing, but we were about a month late for conditions.  Otherwise we'd get a 3000' run down to Myrtle and a lot longer glide down the creek.  Still, no regrets as the Dingford trail runs through some excellent old growth, as well as a grove of Doug fir with some of the straightest stems ever seen, and the chorus of Varied Thrush calls on the exit was a melody not to be missed.