[Tom_Sjolseth]

Mike Collins, Justus_S, Cartman and I all converged at the P&R at 4:30AM. We packed into Mike's rig heading for the Phelps Creek TH. As we turned onto Chiwawa River Road, the sun finally shined its first rays on what was to be a beautiful day. Our plans were to climb Ice Box first via Box Creek, then descend and traverse back to the pass above Ice Lakes, where we'd drop down, around lower ice lake and up to the summit of N Spectacle. Arriving at the TH, we encountered a group of 10 or so NW Hikers including the Schmidts and the whippets and Yukon, dicey, yana, Matt, GeoTom and the gang, and others. Mike, Justus, cartman and I headed out at 7:35 and gained 400' in about 1.25 miles, crossing Box Creek and immediately heading uphill on an old waytrail (not in great shape for a "trail", but good for cross-country). We generally stayed on the ridgetop. It was mainly steep open forest for the first 2,000' then turning into open heather and eventually loose talus. The final 800 feet are on talus and up to class 3 scrambling. Luckily for us the talus was frozen in place, allowing us to step on pretty much anything we wanted without it moving under our feet. The summit of Ice Box offers great views to Maude and the Ice Lakes Basin, and off into the Entiat. After arriving at the summit, Mike and cartman wanted to do other things, while Justus and I went on to N Spectacle. Mike and cartman were awesome to wait in the car for us at the end of their day, thanks guys. Justus and I were looking at descending the NW Face, which appeared to be a fast route into Ice Lakes (versus the descent to Ice Pass). Since the face is fairly steep, and was snowcovered at the time, we were pretty cautious, taking our time on the descent. All-in-all we descended 1500'. Near the bottom, deep and sugary snow made for slow, but giddy glissading. Once into the snow-covered talus, we made a 200' rising traverse to the Ice Lakes Plateau where we headed straight for N Spectacle. We passed a tent along the way, but didn’t see anyone nearby. Minutes later we saw two guys descending from N Spectacle. They were taking photos at the lake when we passed, so we didn’t get to talk to them. The larches were phenomenal, even though they weren’t at their peak. The contrast between the snow, rock, blue sky, and golden larch leaves made for quite a show. The soft snow made for slow going up to the summit of North Spectacle (and all around that day), but we finally made it at 2:30, 7 hours after leaving the TH. It’s a broad summit, and we didn’t see a summit register, but didn’t really look for it since it would be buried in snow. From the summit, the views to 7FJ and Fernow were especially awe-inspiring. All the higher peaks of the Cascades were white from their fresh coat of snow. We saw the NW Hiker crew climbing Maude. The views of our route back looked disheartening, since most of it would be done in deepish snow. Still, it was getting late and we didn’t want to descend Box Creek in the dark, so we started moving again. We descended the 2200’ to Lower Ice Lake where we encountered a husband and wife who offered us cookies. Thanks! We then gained 800’ to where we encountered the NW Hiker Group coming down from Mt Maude. We BS’ed for a while, before Justus and I headed back over Ice Lakes Pass, and contoured our way over towards Box Creek. The traverse was a bit annoying (snow & talus), but short. From here, we reconnected with the ascent route and followed it (roughly) back down to the valley floor. 4300’ later we hit the Phelps Ck Trail and donned our headlamps. We got back to the car about 20 minutes later, at 7:35, 12 hours after we began. Mike and cartman were graciously still there for us when we returned. This was a great, but tiring trip in all the fresh snow but the views and good company made it all worthwhile. Trip Stats: -12 miles -7700’ gain -12 hours

[bertman]

Phelps Creek TH on Friday October 10? I only saw two other cars there. The white one and the red one.

My trusty Subaru

One of the cars must have been yours. And you're saying the other held 10 hikers plus dogs? How is that possible? Bertman

[Tom_Sjolseth]

Actually the 11th, Saturday.

[Randy]

Looking forward to seeing the pictures, must have been some great scenery up there with all the new snow. Way to tuck in two Top 200s!

[Layback]

Nice work you guys.

[Justus S.]

Wow, What and amazing time in such a beautiful area. Thanks for a spectacular trip guys. We started our trip from the Phelps Ck Trhd just after sunrise.

Morning glow on Buck

We hiked up the trail past Box Creek and headed up the ridge.

Views as we head up

Tom working up the ridge

Tom and Mike and the valley below

Finally entering the sunshine

Buck peaking above

It was great to enter the high country and be greeted by the yellowing larches, just beautiful.

Hiking along the ridge and Ice Box

Ice Box and golden Larches

We set our sights on Ice Box.

Scouting a route up Ice Box

That will go

Buck and Glacier on the way up

Fortress on the way up Ice Box

Mike and Cartman working up Ice Box

Tom working up Ice Box

Craggy peaks on the way up Ice Box

We topped out to just an amazing view of lakes and snowy peaks.

Tom on Ice Box

Mike reaching the summit of Ice Box

Snowy Ridges

Looking toward Carne Mtn

View and the Chiwawa River Valley

Maude and the Ice Lakes

Buck from Ice Box

Glacier Peak

Fortress and Chiwawa

Maude

Upper Ice Lake

South Spectacle Butte

North Spectacle Butte

Old Gib and Carne

View toward Rainier

After saying our goodbyes Tom and I descended Ice Box and headed toward Lower Ice Lake.

Tracks coming off Ice Box's Nw Face

Leaving the shadows of Ice Box

Tom heading to Ice Lakes

Spectacle Buttes from the traverse

Our tracks and the NW face of Ice Box

Maude peaks out on the traverse to the Ice Lakes

The Lower Ice Lakes terrace was nice with all the larches.

Larch Trees

Maude and Creek

Approaching lower Ice Lake

Ice Box and Larches

We were glad to finally top out on North Spectacle Butte. The views were sweet.

Tom on the summit

me on the summit

Ice Box from N Spectacle Butte

Ice Lakes and Glacier Pk

Maude and the Ice Lakes

Maude to Fernow

Maude

Seven Fingered Jack

Fernow

S Spectacle Butte

Chelan Mtns, south

Chelan Mtns, north

Spectacle views west

Buckskin and distant peaks

Seven Fingered Jack

Upper Ice and Glacier Pk

After enjoying the views we began our descent to the lower and gain to the upper lake.

descending Spectacle Butte to lower Ice Lake

Ice Creek Valley on the way down Spectacle

Lower Ice Lake and Maude

Tom heading along the lower Ice Lakes

Ice Box

At the upper lake it was nice to take a short cookie break.

our friends that gave us the cookies, thanks

After a short chat with the other nwhikers near Ice Lakes pass we finished the last major gain of the day up to the pass. The pass has some great views.

Ice Lake and North Spectacle

Evening shadows on Spectacle Buttes

Upper Ice Lk and Spectacle Buttes

Tom on the Ice Lakes saddle

Glacier from pass

Buck from Pass

Fortress from pass

Maude from Ice Lakes saddle

upper Ice Lake

Spectacle Buttes and nwhikers

Stream of nwhikers

From the pass we made a speedy descent to the car.

Glacier and Buck on hike out

Glacier in the evening

Glad to be back at the car twelve hours later

[Backpacker Joe]

Great pics guys. Ya gotta love Tom's URBAN camo hat about has far from an urban area as you can get!

[Tom_Sjolseth]

If I was wearing it for tactical reasons, you might have a point. The hat was given to me by Norm Burke, a long time friend of my family. Since he gave the hat to me 3 years ago, it has been up about 60 peaks.

[Jasper]

Hey man, sorry I barked at you so much yesterday. If I'd known who it was I would have stopped sooner. Nice looking trip. My dad was impressed. (Is there a paws up one instead?)

[Gabigabs]

Wonderful pics!

[cartman]

In case you want to do this trip in the future, "Icebox" is named as Ice Creek Ridge in Beckey. Justus had a great route scoped out that hits the ridge to the N of Box Creek most of the way to the basin below the summit. After parting with Tom and Justus, Mike and I retraced our route part way down the ridge. We saw the Carne High Route trail across the way and decided to make our return a loop trip, which would require dropping to and crossing Box Creek. Mike dropped lower while I found a great traversing route on a good game trail which required less than 200' of loss. We became separated and after we both had yelled for the other with no response, continued on our separate ways, Mike directly down the Box Creek drainage and me onto the trail towards Carne. This trail crosses the drainage at ~6300' and is a very good trail, though it is not shown on Green Trails. It has great views and contours far below the ridgeline, so at least the part I was on has little up and down to it. It continues to a small gap to the N shoulder of Carne (here is the junction with Trail #1508), then continues on the other side of Carne to the pass on the S shoulder. From here Carne summit (7085') is a 15 minute RT side trip with 360 degree views. Another 3.3 miles on long switchbacks to the TH. A great trip with good company.

[ree]

How deep was the snow around Ice Lakes? Great pictures. Love that area.

[wamtngal]

Nice to 'meet' you guys below the pass. Saw your descent route of Ice Box from that tarn below upper Ice Lake yesterday on the way to NSB - looked impressive from our viewpoint!

[wildernessed]

Nice Pics

[silence]

WOW .. awesome .. this area is definitely something to check out .. i'm stoked about the gp wilderness (?) now .. great trip .. thanx for all the great pix and sharing