Mt Garfield scope out, April 9, 2000
After an arduous early morning 8am departure from Seattle, Jeff, Greg and Phil venture up the Middle Fork Snoqualmie road on a whim (Jeff's whim, actually) to explore something up there (first however, a stop is made at the North Bend QFC for one of life's necessities, Cadbury Easter Cream Eggs). Jeff thinks he's seen some rock or something somewhere on that road.With this clear goal in mind, we turn up the nasty section of the road at mile 12, and end up at the "gravel outwash" that quickly leads to the steepening south face of Mt Garfield. For those of you who don't know, Mt Garfield is a "hazardous enigma".
After the arduous process of gearing up (such critical decisions as whether to take crampons, rope, rock pro, how far are we going to try to go, etc...), we head on up the dry gravel streambed. After five minutes, I ask if anyone grabbed the Becky guide. Nope. I was the last one to look at it, and I left it on the front seat. No matter, I exclaim, we'll find our way! The pioneers of this route did, right? At any rate, our goal on this day is simply to scope the route out, and hopefully make it up to the infamous "key ledge". We don't have nearly enough time to complete the route, and it's also too early season, the gullies likely filled with undermined snow. We're just excited with the chance to explore this cool-looking face.
Jeff negotiates the path beside the first set of slab waterfalls.
The first part of the route description, we remember: find a blazed path at the first set of slab waterfalls. Mist and clouds hang in the air, obscuring the upper mountain. Occasional views through the trees show steep smooth faces fading into the grey, with white streaks of old snow filling the cracks.
Mt Garfields in the Mist
Eventually, the trail peters out at a large junction of gullies. We scramble down onto the pile of avalanche snow filling the gully, and hang out on some rocks, relaxing, and examining the rest of the route. What did the Becky guide say after "follow the blazed path"? We can't remember. Everything in front of us looks steep. Jeff notes an obvious dirt gully on the other side of the main drainage. It doesn't seem to go the way we want though. We look upward, and try to spot a "razorback". That part of the route description we remember. But everything looks like a razorback, in this vertical world of smooth rock walls and jagged points.
"What the hell is a razorback?" Greg keeps asking.
We also look upward for signs of the "Great Canyon". There are certainly some canyons which look great, and even one which seems like the greatest.
"Great!" I exclaim. "The route stayed above the left edge of the Great Canyon."
"I thought it was the right edge." retorts Jeff. There are only a few ways out of here.
1) The dirt gully, which no one really considers because it is "out of the way" and doesn't lead to any cool-looking
stuff (i.e. scary stuff).
2) Continuing up the main drainage (scary undermined snow).
3) Scrambling up onto rock straight in front of us. It's the only thing that looks less-than-vertical, but
to get to the rocks, we need to traverse some sketchy undermined snow... and it just doesn't "seem right".
4) Continue up in the forest where the path was.
This picture probably isn't funny to you, but it is to Jeff, Greg and I. Something to do with the timer on the camera.
After taking some stupid pictures, we decide on choice #4.
A picture-taking contest, at our high point. I win!
We ascend the extremely steep forest, push through some dense class 3 brush, and sort of find a path continuation. We gain hope as we spot two pieces of orange flagging. But that's it. Finally, the steep forest starts to become rocky. A cairn! This must be the right way. A second cairn brings us to the crest of the ridge we are following. The otherside drops down into dark evil depths... or so it seems (we can't see through all the brush). We are soon pushed back into the forest. It steepens even more, and finally we top out of the ridge crest again at a small col, but views are continually thwarted by the smooth rock walls around us. We eventually reach the "end of the trees".
We begin the descent from "the end of the trees"
Our only option for continuing seems to be a wet crack with no good protection for 50 feet. And we know we are so hopelessly off-route that we don't bother. Instead, we just sit and relax in the intermittent sunshine. We joke and make fun of other people we know. If you are reading this, and we know you, we probably made fun of you.
Slab waterfalls near the base of Garfield
The descent goes quickly, and in a few hours we are back at the truck. We rush for the Becky guide to figure out where we went wrong. Noooooooooo! The dirt gully! It was the dirt gully! Doh!
Jeff points out the correct route from the bottom.
Never leave the Becky guide in your truck!!!!
Greg's attempts to comprehend the hazardous enigma that is Mt Garfield
