Well well well… we’re in the midst of the shittiest winter the Cascades have seen in a decade, but we still have to make the most of it! Two weeks ago we were confronted with another classic January high pressure system: beautiful clear skies and atrocious skiing. Naturally, it was time for… another silly ski blade mission! After a classic morning-of objective decision, Matt and I headed up the Cascade River Road to the Monogram Lake trailhead, hoping to camp in a beautiful spot and hopefully tag Big Devil, the highest summit of Teebone Ridge, a part of North Cascades National Park that I’d never visited before.
We set off from the trailhead at a civilized hour, thankful for the hard work of the folks who had cleared several debris slides that had blocked the road after November’s big floods. Matt whined more than usual when putting on his heavy, stuffed-to-the-gills pack, which I must admit gave me some schadenfreude, but of course he still smoked me on the switchbacks with no snow in sight. We finally hit consistent snow just above the Lookout Mountain-Monogram Lake bifurcation, around 4,300 feet, and ditched our hiking boots in favor of skins. We followed the summer trail through the forest until the meadows around 5,000 feet, then made a rising traverse towards Monogram Lake, and soon were rewarded with our first views of the lake and Eldorado looming behind it. We ripped skins and skied, with some silliness, to Monogram Lake, about 3.5 hours after leaving the car.
Our first view of Monogram Lake, with Eldorado behind it, looking pretty.
A little low tide silliness on the way to Monogram Lake.
We skied across the lake and headed east, crossing the ~5,500 foot saddle to access the basin south of Little Devil. The Monogram Glacier has receded quite a bit since most maps were updated, and we opted to stay outside its lateral moraine (to the west), which meant we had to rip skins for a short steep descent to the glacier proper. Next time it may be faster to just follow the outlet stream up to the toe of the glacier itself. Once on the glacier, though, it was easy skinning to the 6,600 foot saddle immediately west of Little Devil itself, where we planned on camping. We arrived here around an hour before sunset, and dropped our packs to tag the summit. With firm and mildly steep snow, we left the skis too, and just booted easily to the top, with amazing views and a lovely sunset.
Matt staying cool on the way up to the lateral moraine of the Monogram Glacier.
Crossing the Monogram Glacier, with stunning views of Eldo and the Three Dicks.
Evening light on Shusksan and Blum, with the western slopes of Big Devil in the foreground.
Panoramic beauty from Little Devil: Primus and Tillies’ Towers above the Backbone Ridge, Dorado Needle and Eldorado above Marble Creek, the Three Dicks at right, with Johannesburg catching the last of the evening sun.
Glacier Peak and Buckindy to the south.
On the way down, we realized it would have been smart to not leave our ice axes with our packs.
We found a sheltered spot for our tent near some big boulders, and got to work digging a tent platform and wind wall, melting water, and making dinner. A few hill sprints before getting into our sleeping bags meant we were nice and cozy overnight, with temps in the low twenties. After plenty of hours of darkness, I got up before sunrise and wandered up the hill to the west to enjoy great views of the Southern Pickets.
Matt cozy at camp as the first light of the day hits the summit of Baker
Fury pokes out from behind the Twin Needles and the Rake, with the Chopping Block catching some sun below. Terror and Degenhardt in the middle, Inspiration to the right, and The Trapezoid looking cool with Luna just to the right.
Cool shadows on the toe of the Monogram Glacier, and the frozen surface of the meltwater lake that is rapidly replacing it :(
As we ate breakfast, Matt and I considered our options for the day. We had hoped to descend to around 4,400 feet on the west side of Teebone Ridge to climb the South Face of Big Devil, but it looked like unpleasant traversing through barely snowcovered forest followed by some nasty gullies that were full of slide debris. Feeling uninspired, we decided to save Big Devil for another day, and went to tag Baksit (Pt. 6,920+) as a consolation prize. With firm snow, a shaded route, and boot crampons burning a hole in our packs, we left the skis once again and romped over to Baksit in our boots, a pleasant 90 minute round trip from camp.
Fallen Angel Peak from the summit of Baksit, with the Snowfield group in the background: Pyramid, Paul Bunyan’s Stump, a guest appearance from Jack, the Horseman’s Pack, and Snowfield herself in the sun.
Back at camp, having skipped Big Devil, we had plenty of time for our exit, so we decided to spice things up by traversing along the ridge to the southwest directly to Pt. 6,844, staying above the Monogram Glacier. Firm skinning with ski crampons quickly gave way to steep frontpoint traversing with heavy packs and boot crampons through the steepest part, but quickly we were on the summit, ripping skins for our last descent.
Skinning above the Monogram Glacier, with Eldorado, the Three Dicks, and Hidden Lake Peaks across Marble Creek behind.
Matt heading towards the steeper slopes between us and Pt. 6,844, which is the taller summit at left.
Traversing steep slopes above the Monogram Glacier - Matt was a trooper.
From Pt. 6,844, we traversed high above Monogram Lake to cross the ridge at 6,200 feet just south of Pt. 6,708, putting us in the Lookout Creek drainage, just under 2,000 feet above the trail. These southwesterly slopes offered by far the best skiing of the trip, on snow that could reasonably be called corn. Before long, of course, we were back on the snowcovered summer trail, where the requisite forest silliness brought us back to our hiking boots.
Matt skiing off the summit of Pt. 6,844, with great views of the bigger peaks to the east.
The best skiing of the trip was also the last skiing of the trip, in the broad bowl above the trail in the Lookout Creek drainage. Lookout Mountain in the distance.
No blade mission is complete without some running out of snow forest silliness.