Rugged in All the Wrong Ways

I remember many childhood hikes exploring around Monte Cristo – to Twin Lakes, Glacier Basin, and Gothic Basin. But somehow, I went through my early hiking days never visiting the famous turquoise waters of Blanca Lake. With the reopening of the North Fork Skykomish River Road, I wanted to finally visit Blanca Lake and climb Kyes Peak, the highest peak in the Monte Cristo Group. Last summer, I saw Wyatt do a loop by hiking around the lake, climbing Kyes from the Columbia Glacier, and descending the standard climber’s trail. That seemed like a nice way to see the lake, glacier and peak!

John joined me as we set off from the trailhead shortly after sunrise, trying to get ahead of summer Sunday US2 traffic (spoiler: we didn’t beat the traffic).

Blanca Lake was calm and smooth when we arrived. The outlet was a bit higher than when Wyatt came through, so we had to take our shoes off and wade through very cold water!

Getting around the lake started pretty easy, hopping on strategically placed boulders around the edge of the lake. But eventually, we had to dive into the brush to get around a cliffier outcropping. The brush was wet and cold, and the “trail” was hard to follow. At one point, I slipped and tweaked my right knee pretty badly. I felt like I could continue, but I had a slight limp for the rest of the day.

We were relieved when we reached the open boulder field of the far shore. From there, it was easy and pleasant travel up to the base of the Columbia Glacier.

The Columbia Glacier’s toe is still at 4600 ft – incredibly low for a south facing glacier. This speaks to the volume of accumulation from the combination of tons of snowfall and frequent avalanches off Columbia and Kyes Peak above. But with its low elevation and rapid melting, it probably doesn’t have many years left.

Wyatt’s beta indicated that there was an improbable connecting ramp exiting east towards Kyes Peak from the glacier. It looked disgusting as we approached up the snowfield, but started to look decent as we got closer.

We climbed about 50 ft of ledgy, somewhat loose class 3+ terrain. Above, it turned into classic lateral moraine steep rubble, but not too bad with poles. Eventually, we were able to cross the stream and traverse rightward, turning the corner onto the SW side of Kyes Peak at 5800 ft.

Anticipating a good amount of snow travel, we brought microspikes and an ice ax. The microspikes were clutch – the west facing snow was still decently firm and would have been sketchy in just running shoes.

We joined the typical route around 6600 ft and turned north towards the summit. There was some fun moat-stemming and solid scrambling on the summit block!

It was a cool, crystal clear day on the summit. We could make out features on Adams to the south, and Baker looked like it was in HD.

The Monte Cristo Group is a tough riddle to solve. The rock is generally poor, and the terrain is as steep as anywhere in the Cascades. High routes and linkups are challenging. As John says, these mountains are “rugged in all the wrong ways”. I have long wanted to a bigger ridge traverse of more peaks, but looking around from the summit of Kyes confirmed that that was a bad idea. Some things are just not meant to be.

The upper descent went quickly on snow. But once we got off the snow, things started to get interesting. The Kyes climber’s trail travels up and down across the steep, vegetated ridge line overlooking Blanca Lake. The terrain is rugged and “the trail” is remarkably challenging to follow if you didn’t go up it first.

The traverse beneath “Blanca Lake East”, a highpoint on the ridge, was covered in snow, so we ended up following a foot path towards the peak. It was all going well until we had to do some exposed 4th class climbing over a knife edge. We did not expect the most cruxy scrambling of the day on the descent!

Even after the highpoint on the ridge, there were more ups and downs. The trail went in and out more times than Katy Perry. With my bum knee, I was beginning to get pretty sick of this route. We were very relieved when we finally reached the Blanca Lake Trail again.

Usually, I would jog the trail out, but today I decided to give my knee a break and enjoy a nice easy hike out. I cleaned up in the cool waters of the North Fork Skykomish before sitting in US2 Sultan traffic, reminding myself why I never hike US2 anymore…

Kyes Peak was an enjoyable outing with spectacular views, but I don’t think I’d repeat the standard climber’s trail again. There’s a strong case that the glacier route should be the standard route, as it is far more enjoyable and possibly quicker, although I could see the scrambly section being a bit annoying on the way down.

Notes:

• The route was 14 miles and 7500 ft gain. It took us around 9 hours. The terrain is slow!
• The glacier route works later with less snow, as Wyatt did it about a month later. I imagine there is more slab and dirt walking. I doubt the difficulty of the crux is changed at all though. It’s definitely an easier route to ascend than descend. But I’d also say the same about the standard route.