Snoqualmie Mountain, Northwest face
Part II - the climb - April 29, 2000
Matt in Enigma Gully
A month after the initial reconnaissance mission, we laid assault on the infamous enigma gully.
During the previous weekdays, we kept our eyes on the weather forecast, which steadily improved. After a long stretch of warm weather, a cold front was to move through, potentially providing a safe and efficient time to do the gully. The snowfall forecast with this event provided some uneasiness, but Saturday morning at 7:30, the Enigmy Army of Phil, Jeff, Greg, Stephen and Matt, arrived at the Alpental parking lot, ready for action.
The post-easter season had provided me with cheap chocolate, and a ceremonial Easter Bunny who, ever since he had been purchased for 88 cents the day before, had been a Dead Bunny Walking. He would be the sacrificial summit bunny should our Enigma Gully climb be a success.
Trailhead prep. Jeff makes an "adjustment", while Stephen shows some leg.
A new route-finding device would be employed today - USGS aerial photos obtained at the terraserver site. During the reconnaissance trip, we took a rather circuitous route to the basin below the northwest face. Today, we were determined to make a more direct approach. However, route-finding on the east side of Alpental valley is complicated by cliff bands. We hoped the aerial photos would show us the way. Plus they are cool.
After passing by a group of boy scouts impressed at our equipment, we crossed the river on a thin snowbridge, and headed up the east side of the valley. We quickly arrived at an open area below a formidable cliff band. Matt fell into a hole up to his waist. This place looked like a glacier with crevasses (except for the trees surrounding it), but was apparently just a talus field with big boulders, and holes on the underside of the boulders.
We scoped out a few options for dealing with the cliff band, including a direct route up a stream breaching the cliffs, but none looked good. As Matt traversed further for more options, we suddenly saw Steve negociating the "stream direct" with a bypass of the sketchy snow slab which made it questionable. When he indicated it was okay, I followed him up. It was an excellent choice - very Cascadian - involving direct water fall (drenching my upper body) followed by a crouching traverse under an overhang, with mandatory devil's club handholds, finishing off with a class 4 move onto nearly vertical snow. The others took the correct (easy) way around that Matt found.
Bunny's demise grew nearer.
We continued up the open forest. At some point, I called up saying we should wait for Jeff and Greg. Greg appeared from below.
"Is Jeff far behind?" I asked.
"I dunno. I haven't seen him in a while. He took a different route."
"What?"
"Yeah, it was weird. All of a sudden he was in front of me, and going a different way. Sort of paralleling us."
"Did you ask him where he was going?"
"No."
We wondered what the hell he was doing. After a few minutes of yelling through the woods ("Jeff, you spaz!"), we re-established vocal contact with Jeff, who finally appeared from the right. We continued. He said he was ok, but further questioning revealed he was feeling kind of sick. He seemed pretty out of it.
Approaching the ridge overlooking the NW face.
Our excellent route-finding, aided by the aerial photo, and the dialog between Matt and I, consisting of "Let's head more right" and "Let's head more left", eventually brought us to the ridge overlooking the northwest basin. The weather had deteriorated somewhat, the snowfall had increased. However, the cold temperatures had made for a firm, walkable, safe snowpack.
Bunny's demise grew nearer.
The northwest facade of Mt. Snoqualmie rose above and across from us in a series of vertical walls fading successively into the fog. Jeff said he thought it looked like China. Apparently, he was still a bit out of it. We found the lowest angled descent gully, put our crampons on and down-climbed it, facing inward. It was pretty steep.
Stephen looks at the northwest face.
A long traverse below the face brought us to the bottom of the infamous Enigma Gully. After a brief food break, we headed up, under brightening skies. Bunny's demise grew nearer.
Matt (lower left) reaches the trees below Enigma Gully.
The gully steepened to a consistent 45 degrees, but overall was quite straightforward. In firmer conditions, a rope might have been warranted, but as it was, the gully was a kick step stair case (especially with Matt in the lead). However, the aesthetics of the couloir, the scenery around us, the excellent snow conditions, and the fact that we were only 50 miles from Seattle and had this place all to ourselves, made it so we unanimously agreed this was quite "rad". Matt, Greg and I were awed at the excellent ski potential of this route... it would be such a sweet powder run in stable conditions. In its current state, with about 4-6 inches of powder on a firm crust, it would have been good except for the chunky cornice debris that littered the lower half.
Matt covers ground on the debris-strewn slope lower down.
The slope moderated as we entered the upper gully, bathed in sunshine. Beckey mentions to "take the easier right branch" higher up. The only "left branch" we could see consisted of a minor, iced-over, class 4 crack.
Greg, Steve and Jeff just past the steep bit.
After a short break on the ridgetop, admiring the northwest face below us, we trudged the final few hundred feet up through tiny trees to the real summit.
Bunny's demise was imminent!
Finally in the sunshine!
The views were awesome - big snow bowls on the north east side of the summit showed enormous ski potential. Glacier Peak, Adams and Rainier were all visible, as were the vast clearcuts south of I-90. Somewhere in that jumble, the awesome Kelly Butte rose like a diamond in the rough. What an incredible day!! After some food, we gathered round and listened to the story of Peter Rabbit, according to the booklet that came with the Bunny. As a children's story, it was pretty pathetic... however, as mature adults, we read into the extensive sexual innuendo contained in the ten page booklet. Sucking on a pea indeed.
The story was finished, and then the Bunny was sacrificed to the Gods of Snoqualmie Pass.
Self-explanatory.
The descent down the west ridge to Alpental (which appeared as though it was right _below_ us). proved a quick one. The snow was softening in the afternoon sun, and with five of us trudging down, the entire slope came alive with wet snow balls, occasionally coming together to form large snow cookies. Lower down, some excellent glissading was had.
Starting the descent.
Jeff kept having bad glissades, until he realized he still had his harness on. Matt glissaded down the last open slope into the trees, and promptly announced the snow was hardy and crusty in there. Stephen came zipping down full blast, ignored our warning, and went painfully sliding over the crusty snow in the forest, eventually self-arresting with his shovel to come to a stop... bringing back painful memories of Cascade Pass. Stephen kept stopping to try and figure out which tool to use to descend... he was, at different times, using three: ice axe, ski pole, and shovel. Skilled mountaineers must use the right tool for job, you know.
We kept thinking about how awesome it is to come back to a car that contains a stash of cold beer. Unfortunately, there was no such thing. Instead, we headed to Dairy Freeze in North Bend for some burgers and shakes, and admired the Jack-in-the-box ping pong balls on every car antenna.