Mt Maude (9040') 9/4/09

Alison needed to get out. I needed to get out. It was a long weekend. So we went out to the mountains. It was a bad week in that my sick cat had taken a turn for the worse and I chose (reluctantly, painfully) to have him put down. So getting away from the house was probably a good choice. Unfortunately, the forecast was for poor weather throughout the weekend (labor day). So we decided to leave town a day early (Thursday) and take Friday off, since it appeared to be the only day that was guaranteed descent weather, and instead, we'd work on labor day. The location and route was up to Alison and she decided to go up Leroy creek to Mt Maude, Seven Finger Jack, and Furnow.... who, what, and when to be determined en route. 7 Finger Jack (left) and Maude (right) from Leroy Creek:
So this one is in remembrance of you Monte (sorry for the bad pics).








We ended up getting out of the city at about 9:30 pm on Thursday, allowing us to set up camp at midnight:30 or so. After a beer and reading route descriptions we were asleep to be awoken semi-early. After a final drive to the TH we were en route at 8:45 or so.

We hiked to Leroy creek and took the unmaintained trail up Leroy creek. I had done Spider gap with my sis and her (now) husband a few years back and was hoping that our climb would be just as nice. We headed up the trail and I was pleasantly surprised to how nicely the unmaintained trail took us straight up. After just over an hour we had climbed 1800' to high camp... before noon! We set up camp and decided to go for a climb, as Friday was our only guaranteed full day of good weather. Here's a pic from camp:

We went for Maude... and possibly 7 fingered jack depending on daylight and energy reserves. We took the Carne Mtn trail across the W face of Maude, finally deciding to go up a broad coilour full of crap scree (you think I would have learned from Redoubt and spickard!). We struggled up the couloir finally hitting the S ridge. The couloir from almost atop:
Once arriving at the S ridge Maude's summit did the rest of the work luring us in without losing a minute. The ridge to the summit:
We knew it was too late (plus our energy reserves had dwindled) to try another peak so we hung out watching the weather roll in and replace the bluebird skies. Before that, views were awesome... We got to see Glacier in all her glory. Pretty much my whole route with my sis spider gap - lyman lake - cloudy passs- buck creek pass. Red - chiwawa - fortress. Bonanza. Dome. Furnow and 7 finger jack, and everything in between.

From the summit, Baker and shuksan split by Dome.

Alison and I at the Summit with Glacier behind:

Glacier with "drama"

Clarke Mtn et al...

When the sun departed below the clouds ... and horizon ... and the rain started, we decided it was best to get back to camp. Having seen the pass to Carne mountain we figured that it would be best (i.e. easiest) to go down the extremely mellow/easy S ridge to the pass and take trail to camp. Well, the S ridge cliffed out just below where we gained it on the ascent and we ad-libbed down one of the many class 3 gullies. We finally made it to the pass and took trail back to camp .... only to lose the trail. It looked like there had been a few MAJOR recent slides taking out everything in its way (including trail) . In the end, we ended up descending a little to far, but we immediately figured out where we had left the trail on the ascent and bushwacked back to that point. Unknown to us, we had left the trail on the ascent literally 10 yards before it ended.

We hiked back to camp in sporadic rain, arriving just as darkness set in. Not bad for a single day - about 6000' gain in one day and one of Washington's 10 9000' summits - Alison's second highest (Shuksan). Intermittent rain throughout the night and into the morning, with a diminishing forecast made us hike out first thing in the morning instead of trying one of the other big guys up there.

In the end it was a good outing.... tough, fun, good views in a great area, and fun to do something like that with Alison. It served the purpose (and more!!!) for both of us. ...But finally, RIP Monte, Squeakers, Buddy. You'll be missed good boy!