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Since backcountry travel in Southern British Columbia
is banned due to the extreme fire danger, Marian and
I decided to head down to Leavenworth
Washington, an area we had been wanting to explore for
a couple of years now. We were looking for something
not *too* strenuous given that I am losing the battle
with a nasty virus but still wanted to bag a peak so
we decided on Spider Meadows/Spider Gap & Chiwawa
Mountain. According to a recent trip report we had read,
it seemed like it might be doable with just crampons
and ice axes which was our criteria.
The Leavenworth area is one of the Pacific Northwest's
best kept secrets as far as I'm concerned. It can be
raining and miserable from here to Portland & all
the way to the Rockies, but you can almost always count
on Leavenworth to be sunny. Complete with leaderhosen,
wiener schnitzel, German beer & everything else
you would expect from a Bavarian village, Leavenworth
also boasts some of the best rock climbing and wilderness
areas I've ever seen.
Spider Meadow/Spider Gap is in the Wenatchee National
Forest & Glacier Peak Wilderness Area. Stop at the
ranger station (on the way along hwy 2) to pick up a
permit if you don't already have an annual one. ($5/day
or $30/year).
We arrived at the trailhead on Friday at the crack
of 2:30pm. We were running a little behind schedule
due to a late start and a number of stops along the
way including one to call in a forest fire burning on
the western slopes of the Chiwawa river valley. We'd
decided to continue on up the valley and asess the situation.
Decided that it was far enough away that it didn't pose
a serious risk. Anyway.... by 3:00, we were finally
on our way.
The first 5 miles follow a wide, flat & dusty horse
trail through the forest. Its a very boring hike that
feels much longer than 5 miles. I guess there are plenty
of people who enjoy this kind of hiking but if you know
me, you know that I get pretty claustrophobic stuck
down in the trees. The meadow, when you finally get
there is a welcome sight. There are many camp sites
both along the trail and in the meadow. It would be
a good place to take non hikers & children. A pretty
little river (Phelps Creek) winds its way through what
I'm sure is a blanket of wildflowers if you get there
at the right time.
The trail ran parallel to the river for a mile and
a half until we crossed it at the northern end of the
valley. The trail then began climbing and didn't stop
until we reached camp 1600ft higher and another mile
along.
We got the
best camp site since we were the only ones there.
It was a beautiful spot right out on Larch Knob overlooking
Spider Meadows with Chiwawa behind us.  There
is room for several tents here and stream running close
by for water. It looked like there were more good spots
if you crossed the stream and continued up to another
knoll.
We had taken our time and were at camp
at 7:00. Had a surprisingly delicious dinner of Lasagna
with fresh bell peppers in it (my new favorite dehydrated
food company is Mountain House. I get it at REI. The
Beef Stroganoff and Pasta Primivara (added tuna) are
also excellent). The sunset made Mount Maude & Seven
Fingered Jack in the east glow red but of course the
picture
doesn't do it justice.
We Crawled into the tent around 9:30 and
dropped off to sleep quickly on the lovely flat ground.
I had a really good sleep but it was very difficult
to get up in the morning. The heat from the sun beating
down on the tent drove me out around 8:00 & Marian
followed shortly after. It was already hot as we ate
breakfast. After our leisurely pace the day before and
our lazy morning it was a bit of a shock when we finally
struck out at 9:30 to face 45 minutes of steep &
steady climbing up to Spider Gap. We took the tougher
route over the ridge rather than up the glacier and
were rewarded with views of Dumbell
Mountain. (if you look closely, you'll see Marian...
look at the second peak over from the left and then
draw a line straight down from the peak)
 A
few minutes later we made it to Spider Gap and a beautiful
view
down into the Lyman Lake Valley. We hiked down on a
rocky trail, then traversed the small glacier patch
over towards the lower Lyman. The rock in between was
quite steep & loose although it certainly doesn't
look it from this picture.
When we got to the edge of the Lower Lyman Glacier,
we were pretty shocked by our first good look at our
route. It looked prohibitively steep.
We decided to traverse the lower glacier
and reevaluate the situation from the other side. It
was easy to avoid crevasses and we made it across pretty
quickly with crampons. As expected, it didn't look as
bad from the other side. It was steep but the holds
were good and the exposure not terribly severe so we
decided to press on.
The route description we were following
followed the finger of the Upper Lymen Glacier but we
decided that it was too steep & icy this late in
the year and opted for the rock. I really enjoyed this
section of the climb. There were easier routes than
the one I took but the rock was just too good not to
climb on.
We stopped for lunch along side the finger
and in hindsight, not in the smartest place. After lunch
we took a picture of the two of us and only then really
had a good look at the glacier overhead. Had a chunk
decided to break off we would have been ground beef.
This chilling possibility was brought home to us about
10 minutes later as we continued our ascent only to
find several refrigerator
sized pieces in our path.
When we made it up to where we had planned
to start our traverse of the Upper Lyman Glacier, it
didn't take long to decide that continuing would be
stupid. The crevasses
were huge and ran from one side to the other. I was
pretty disappointed but it wasn't a good day to die.
About this time, the sky was turning black from the
smoke
from the fire burning in the valley. Hoping the car
would still be at the trailhead when we got back, we
pressed on.
We had a turn around time of 3:00 so we
decided to try for the minor peak immediately above
us. That peak eluded us too as by 2:30 we were still
working our way around crevasses and were nowhere near
the peak. Plan C was to go see what was to continue
north and then hope to find a route down to the lakes.
Plan C worked out fairly well. We got
to see some stunning
lakes and a few more peaks. The decent
was mostly awful but did have some fun stretches. The
only rocks that didn't move generally involved downclimbing
almost vertical faces overhanging a steep
glacier. That part was kinda fun but I was pretty
happy to get down on flat ground that wasn't moving.
Met up with a couple of guys from Seattle
down around the lake & chatted a bit about our route
as they were looking at climbing it too. They were better
prepared than we were with rope & ice screws but
the weather didn't cooperate for them the next day.
They have some good pictures on their site too so check
them out.
We made it back to camp just after 5:00
but didn't have time to relax since we were racing the
sun. Packed up and were on our way again at 6:00. Hiked
the last boring 5 miles in the dark. Thought it would
never end. Did get a few cool views of the fire up ahead
though. Got back to the car at 9:00 to find an evacuation
notice on the windshield. Drove right past the
fire on the way out which was very cool. Unfortunately
the pictures didn't turn out.
All in all it was a great trip. Saturday
was a bit of a long day (11.5 hours followed by a 4.5
hour drive) but it was well worth it. Just wish we'd
had time to stop for dinner in Leavenworth but after
11.5 hours Jack-in-the-box tasted pretty darn good.
CLICK
HERE FOR A MAP
Directions:
Take I-5 to Everett and take the Hwy 2 exit. Take Hwy
2 through Stevens Pass to Coles Corner. Turn left just
before the Chevron station on to Hwy 207. Turn right
on to Chiwawa Loop Road and then take your first left
(Meadow Creek Road). This turns into the Chiwawa Valley
Road and is paved for 11 miles before turning into gravel.
Drive on the gravel for 17 miles until you reach a fork
with a sign for Phelps Creek. Take this fork and arrive
at the trailhead in 2.5 miles.
 Reference:
Don't
Waste Your Time in the North Cascades by Kathy &
Craig Copeland.
Trip Report | Photo
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