[yukon222]

The weather finally cooperated and gave me a very nice weekend hiking day. Left the almost full Dingford trailhead at 7:30am Saturday. Nice cool temps with sunshine streaming down thru the forest in a few spots. Even the Devil’s Club was enjoying the day.

devil's club warming up for the day

thistle

Passed a crew of 6 workers on the trail, improving some of the stream crossings and creating drainage channels. As I approached Myrtle, I kept a lookout for a simple climber’s path heading off to Big Snow. The two other times I had visited the lake with some friends, I had looked for one but hadn’t seen it. Didn’t see it this time either!

myrtle lake area

Since the area was thick with mosquitoes, I decided to go about 1/2 down the lake and then veer up into a talus field so I could do a rising traverse over to the main talus field. Wasn’t too bad initially until I left the 1st talus. 6’ high ferns, dripping wet with condensation, concealed more talus. 50 yards into the 100 yard field, I heard a big crashing sound above and behind me, perhaps 40 yards away. Couldn’t see anything but I decided to quickly thrash my way onward!! Finally saw the primary talus field and started picking my up. After awhile, I could see the top of the ridge with the Big Snow outflow pouring out of a narrow slot in the vertical ridge. Fortunately, there is a narrow area on the right side of the slot that you can scramble thru. A little tricky but no real dangers.

big snow outflow talus

big snow outflow ascent

What a view to behold when you pop thru! Amazing water colors in Big Snow Lake with sweeping granite hillsides slipping into the surface. Unfortunately, the bugs were horrific. You barely had time to snap a picture before the need to swat at them grew too much. The only real route information I had quickly scanned before the trip was to ascend the ridge to the summit by going around Snowflake Lake, then follow the north side snowfields to the summit.

big snow lake

big snow lake reflection

big snow lake's color

snowflake lake2

It looked like the simplest route would be to wrap around Snowflake, gain the forested ridge on the east side to avoid the cliffs and then follow that up. For some inexplicable reason, I looked up towards the far right side of the cliff face and thought I saw a ramp that would lead me onto the upper plateau. Plus it was mostly open hillside, snow and granite boulders – none of that brushy tree covered slope stuff. After ascending one short wet gully, I kept picking my up the slope and angling towards to the right. Naturally, I still couldn’t quite see if the ramp would go thru the final cliff face or not. It kept arcing away so I had to climb over to its’ base. Uh oh. I can see the top of the plateau, perhaps 50’ above me. Unfortunately, there are only 3 possible routes and none of them easy. One slot in the granite looked OK for a non-rock climber like me but the start of the slot was 10’ above me. Couldn’t reach it. Option 2 was a 4” wide crack that stretched up for 20’. Option 3 could be scrambled via a 18” wide ledge covered with loose stones and some arm work to get over the lip. However, it was directly above a 30’ drop off which then flowed into a 200’ high snowfield which then ended in a field of granite boulders. Hated to do it, but I had to drop back down 200’ to a snow finger which could be reached after traversing a very steep snowfield. Ice ax would only go in 3” or so as I slowly picked my up/over the snow.

far right side traverse

falcon & owl rock

Finally, now I can see the summit area! Short work to walk up the rest of the large ridgeline and the views open up even more. Just a few clouds at the horizon near Seattle. Gentle breeze to keep the bugs away but 60° temperature was perfect with the sunshine. Spent about 1:15 hours on the summit, occasionally taking pictures but mostly staring at the rugged terrain and lakes tucked down into their bowls. Umbrella Lady and her friend arrived on the summit a little while later. They were curious how I had made it to the top since they hadn’t seen me on the ridge above them. I confessed that I had not used the standard route on the way up but was definitely going to on the way down.

rainier & company.jpg

mt daniel pano.jpg

glacier from big snow.jpg

glacier first look pano.jpg

glacier big snow lake pano.jpg

big snow summit 360.jpg

They left after a brief summit stay and I waited a bit, still intent on snapping even more photos of the scenery. Followed the tracks thru the snow to the head of the long snow finger at the northern ridgeline. Snowflake was far below. Glissading wasn’t an option – very steep snow with zero room to run out but the late sun had softened it up quite a bit. At the last cliff section 500’ above Snowflake Lake, I planned on veering to the north to follow the tree lined ridge down to the area just above the lake. But when I was farther up on the snowfields, I thought I had seen Umbrella Lady drop down the middle area of the cliffs which is close to where I had gone thru the first set of cliffs. Confusing area. Took me several tries to find a slot that would get down thru the cliffs. Probably much better and quicker to take the longer route thru the forest above the NE corner of Snowflake.

descending upper snowfield

descending upper snowfield2

upper snowfield2

upper snowfield.jpg

looking north

big snow snowfield pano.jpg

snowflake lake

big snow upper field

big snow upper cliffs.jpg

big snow upper approach.jpg

big snow middle.jpg

Finally reached the outlet of Big Snow Lake and picked my way down the 1000’ high talus field.

big snow outlet afternoon

Continued on straight one the talus stopped, veering slightly to the right towards Myrtle to hit the south end of the lake. Ferns here were only 5’ high so that was good. Unfortunately, 4’ tall sticker bushes were hiding inside. Too late in the day to bother with anything other than a bull rush thru the stuff. Found 2 convenient logs to walk on and hit the camping area next to the end of the lake. 1 1/2 hours back to the truck. Long day. Mapping software shows total gain of about 5600’ and 14 miles. Red up, blue down.

big snow route.jpg

[Backpacker Joe]

Nice report and great pics Yuk. All in one day. Krazie Klimbers!

[1k]

Good job! Thanks for the map info. Been wanting to visit Big Snow Lake but think I will wait 'till the skeeters die down a bit.

[Yet]

Steve, glad you got a very nice weekend hiking day. Sounds like you had quite an adventure. Your photos are incredible! Thanks for sharing them. I like the reds in this one.

looking north

The sun shining down on the snowfield is both understated and magnificent. The rocks on the left look like they just sprouted out of nowhere like Superman's kryptonite crib, except with less krypton. Awesome pic! This would look really lovely framed and put on display on a deserving wall.

big snow snowfield pano.jpg

[Magellan]

Big Snow really does have tremendous views. Thanks for trailblazing. I must get there soon.

[yukon222]

[Schmidt Altitude]

Love that area Yukon - you captured it very well. We eyed the traverse from Snowflake up to Big Snow when we were there a couple years ago....definitely looked interesting. Looks like a really great summit, we especially love the unique rock formations. Glad you had a succesful day out!

[yukon222]

Here's a better 360 summit pano hosted at Imageshack which allows much bigger files than Flickr.

Shot with Canon PowerShot SD700 IS at 2007-07-30

[wildernessed]

Gorgeous !

[umbrella lady]

Great trip report and photos and it was nice to meet you on the summit, we were really surprised to see a person up there, since there weren't other tracks that we saw except from the guy camping at Big Snow lake. Certainly agree that the hike is worth it to see the lake!

[forest gnome]

This whole area SUCKS BEANS!!! Don't go there...just stay at myrtle lake!! those pics are all photoshopped.....actually I hope to get to snowflake soon

[Mtn Dog]

Yukon, Beckey's Guide talks about summiting from the lower lakes - it's great to read a TR from someone who has now done it! H. Hound showed me this view when I was up on the ridge last year.

Myrtle, Big Snow, and Snowflake Lakes

I always thought that rock formation was pretty cool. You got really close to it! This is as close as I got:

Dog's teeth looking west from the ridge

[yukon222]

Thanks, Mtn Dog. I actually thought the route from the lakes was going to be halfway established but it sure didn't appear that way to me. The way it was going over there on the far right ridge, I thought I was going to have to go up the Teeth. (So that is what they are called, didn't know that.) Here's another rock photo, plus the face which I didn't attempt even though the final summit ridge is right there. I actually went to the far right edge of the ridge but the wind buffeting the trees as it hit the 1000' drop-off was way too "interesting". So I backed down the face 200' and went up a steep snow finger to the final ridge.

falcon & owl.jpg

just below summit ridge

[Magellan]

I liked your 'Falcon and Owl' caption better.

[Matt]

Falcon & owl is a great title for that photo. It really looks like those shapes. Scary devil's club photo also. Thanks for the info on this route.