The Great Freeze

The “Great Freeze of January 2024”, as I am calling it, was quite remarkable. At its coldest, highs were in the mid 20s in the Seattle and single digits in Bellingham! There’s typically a cold snap once a winter when lows in the city dip into the 20s, but this one was different. The cold invigorated the typically sad Washington Ice Climbers, but I knew better than to get my hopes up. Ice climbs don’t form overnight. For the first few days of the cold snap, I just went skiing.

But as I looked around, something seemed different this time. Creeks were frozen solid. Lakes, bays, and rivers were icing over. Ice chunks floated down the Fraser River. Things were freezing, and freezing really quickly. As I drove up to Snoqualmie Pass one day, I glanced up at the south facing waterfall near Exit 38 and Dirty Harry’s Balcony. Could it actually be frozen?!?! Later that evening, I saw a report on Strava: it was!

I had probably one day left in the cold snap to get after some lowland ice, so I called up Porter. We had a few different local climbs to choose from that were “in”, but we decided that this south facing climb was probably the most rare to form. On short notice, we planned to go up in the afternoon after work for another local exit 38 ice mission! I actually had not climbed ice since we climbed at the Black Ice Crag, a north facing ice smear also at exit 38. I am a true North Bend ice climber now!

John joined me and Porter for a quick #waice mission. Easterly winds were gusting violently as we hiked up the Dirty Harry’s Balcony Trail. Trees groaned in the wind and we gawked at the South Fork of the Snoqualmie, which had frozen over in places. Ice spurted from cracks in boulders and stumps. Everything was shockingly frozen!

We cruised up to Dirty Harry’s Balcony. You cannot quite see the climb from the Balcony, but it is tucked away in one of the gullies just east of the Balcony.

From the Balcony junction, we left the well trodden path and followed a set of bootprints eastward towards the drainage that forms this climb. Trask and Jake, two North Bend locals, had climbed this the day before. There was some moderate bushwhacking down the drainage until we got to where it finally steepened into the waterfall.

While it is possible to approach from the bottom, the top-down approach certainly requires less time off trail. It also allowed us to rap in and evaluate the ice. We brought twin 60m ropes and rappelled from a tree about 15 meters downwards. From there, we used another tree to rappel and our 60m ropes got us to the base of the climb. As we were racking up, John realized he had forgotten his harness and climbing gear at the car! So we put him on a diaper harness and used some creative belay and rappel techniques.

The ice was fat! It was crazy how much ice grew in just 5 days. The ice was very trustworthy solid. It was definitely the highest quality ice I have ever found in the lowlands. We enjoyed the 60m pitch of rambly WI2-3. Most of it was low angle, but there were a few body lengths around vertical if you picked out the steepest line.

After getting blasted by icy easy winds on the approach, we were pleasantly surprised to find this climb well sheltered and tucked away. Combined with the exceptional ice and nice ambiance gazing out towards McClellan Butte, it made for a highly enjoyable, non-sketchy lowland #waice experience! At least there was a brushy topout, or else it would have felt a little too much like Hyalite…

We finished up right around dark and had a nice walk back through the windy forest to our car. It was satisfying to tick off such a novel, ephemeral climb in awesome conditions! I’ll probably retire from ice climbing until Exit 38 comes “in” again. Ha!

Notes:

• It was below freezing in the lowlands for about 5 days leading up to this climb. Many days the high was below 30F and lows in the teens, even in Seattle. At Snoqualmie Pass, temps were below 10F the entire time.
• This route is south facing, but does not get as much sun as you might think because it is set back in a tight gully.
• The approach took about 1hr 10min. It is 10-15 min past the turnoff to Dirty Harry’s Balcony.
• You might be able to TR the entire climb with a 70m rope from the top, but it would be close.