The Lyman Glacier Icefall. This photo shows the first half of the climbing route, in red.
The forecast for the weekend was looking good. After some physical therapy for my ankle and some time to heal, Elain and I decided that the time was right to try another alpine climb. At first I suggested Kyes Peak again, but Elain and I both were unenthusiastic about the brushy approach to the Pride Glacier. Elain suggested the Lyman Glacier Icefall on Chiwawa Mountain. At first I dismissed the idea as not feasible for a 2-day trip in autumn, thinking Chiwawa was really remote. But Elain did her homework and reported back that the approach is only 7 miles. So we gassed up the Jeep and packed our gear.
The drive to the Phelps Creek trailhead went smoothly, with the usual deer sightings along the Meadow Creek Road. Smoke from remnants of the terrible forest fires of September was still evident along the road. We hit the trail at 9:30 AM. We had some concerns that the Phelps and Leroy Creek crossings would be raging due to the recent heavy rains, but they were quite tame. However, the Leroy Creek crossing was a scene of devastation, presumably from the record rainfall last Monday. The creek appeared to have blasted out of its usual drainage and rerouted on its way to joining the Phelps, and there was debris and downed timber everywhere. We made our way into the Spider Meadow, where we stopped for lunch. Somehow after lunch, we managed to get off the trail. We stupidly just kept wandering along the creek rather than taking the time to find the trail (which was likely just a few hundred yards uphill from us). After a kilometer of wandering through the brush along the creek, we figured it was about the right spot to cross the Phelps Creek. Not being on the actual Spider Gap trail, we missed the switchbacks that easily gain a lot of elevation through the forest. We instead ended up bushwhacking uphill through thick slide alder. The alder branches kept catching on the pack and pushing me back downhill, making upward progress a rude struggle with much cursing. Finally we located a talus field that provided more rapid uphill progress. Soon thereafter we were delighted to regain the trail. From here on we made fast progress up the switchbacks, and we were soon at the base of the Spider Glacier. A placard declaring the closure of the entire Phelps Creek / Spider Meadow area due to forest fires, was still there. The Spider Glacier had a few inches of new snow, and very few crevasses were visible. We walked up the Spider Glacier unroped, and reached the snow-filled basin below Spider Gap at 3:00 PM. After scrambling up to Spider Gap for a view and some pictures, we decided to make camp in the basin where we would have some shelter from wind.
We set the alarm for 3:45 AM, and were moving by 4:30 AM. The temperature was in the 40s, and there was no wind. The slopes leading down towards the Lyman Lake basin were quite icy. It was hard to see very far in the darkness, but we were able to follow some tracks in the snow that led to the very low-angled Lower Lyman Glacier. There we roped up and headed for the first bergschrund. We passed the first bergschrund on the left, scrambling up an ice-covered rock slab and making our way rightward onto a snow slope immediately above the schrund. We continued our rightward rising traverse, eventually reaching an icy gully. Noting the large amount of ice debris at the base of the gully and the warm temperature, we climbed as quickly as possible up the gully. At the top of the gully I belayed Elain up to me from a sheltered spot. From there, we simul-climbed up a 45-degree ice face for a few pitches, until we reached the snout of the Lyman Glacier Icefall. There, I belayed Elain up to me, and collected the screws. Another pitch of 45-50 degree ice put us in the icefall, which was very broken up. Our route weaved back and forth a lot, occasionally requiring down-climbing into crevasses. The recent snowfall had filled in some of the crevasses; stepping on the snow base to cross them made for a stressful form of "crevasse roulette". After a couple of pitches, we exited the icefall on the right, at the top of a snow field. There, we saw tracks in the snow heading up toward a large, wide crevasse that extended from the top of the icefall to the rocks on the right-hand side of the glacier. The tracks went into the crevasse on the far right-hand side. We followed the tracks, and found the crevasse to be passable there, via a short (10') step of steep ice. Above the crevasse, we ascended the right-hand side of the glacier, which had a few inches of soft new snow on top of hard glacial ice. Eventually came to a second bergschrund, a few hundred feet below the top of the glacier. We passed the second bergschrund on the right-hand side, carefully traversing left across a steep ice sheet between the moat and the upper wall of the schrund. Once above the second bergschrund, we ascended the glacier until we reached a wide, snowy saddle at the top of the glacier. From there, we turned left and ascended two pitches of steep ice and snow until we reached the rocky saddle just northeast of the Chiwawa summit. We scrambled up (mostly) dry rock to reach the west summit at 11:00 AM. Elain signed the summit register, noticing that a party had just summited the day before. We took a couple of photographs and immediately headed down. Given the icy condition of the upper glacier, we expected it would be a time-consuming descent.
We face-in downclimbed from the rocky saddle to the wide snowy saddle using a running belay of ice screws and rock pro on rocks outcroppings protruding out of the ice. From there, we descended rapidly until reaching the second bergschrund. At the second bergschrund, we used a running belay of screws to protect the traverse above and around the upper schrund wall. We then side-stepped down the icy glacier until reaching the large crevasse. At this point we discussed our options, and decided to rappel into the crevasse on a double V-thread, figuring this was safer than downclimbing into the moat and descending steep rock. After rappelling into the crevasse, we followed tracks in the snow toward the "walk-off" descent route, which (this time of year) consisted of about 800' of class 3 scrambling on slabby rock. The rock was occasionally iced over, and many of the ledges were snow-covered. Toward the bottom of the descent, a steep, short snow gully yielded access to the toe of the Lyman Glacier, just above the first bergschrund. We carefully descended the ice slope and down-climbed into the moat to scramble around the bergschrund. A high-step got us out of the moat and back onto the Lower Lyman Glacier. I had stupidly worn my primaloft parka through much of the descent, and felt like I was going to collapse from overheating by the time we reached the Lower Lyman. As we were walking down the glacier, our self-congratulatory banter was interrupted when Elain punched through into an unseen crevasse. The new snow had covered up many of the crevasses, but had not yet consolidated into snow bridges. Unfazed, Elain continued to lead the way across the lower Lyman toward the slopes below Spider Gap.
A long slog across crumbly red rock bands and up low-angle icy slopes eventually got us back to Spider Gap. We reached the tent at 4:15 PM. We packed as quickly as possible, and were on our way down the Spider Glacier at 4:40 PM. It was dark by the time the trail got into the timber just above Phelps Creek, at 5:50 PM. We were able to easily follow the trail for the most part, getting off-trail only briefly at a couple of spots where recent flooding had washed out the trail. A long slog ensued, and we reached the car at 9:30 PM. Elain stoically accepted the burden of driving home. We were ravenous by the time we reached Monroe; the glow of the Golden Arches through the midnight fog was a welcome sight.
Gear we used: 8.5mm x 50m rope, ice tools, 6 screws, 1 picket, small (red) tri-cam, some double-runners, V-threader
The Lyman Glacier Icefall. This photo
shows the first half of the climbing route,
in red.
Bonanza Peak
Elain on the approach
Elain in the tent, at camp
Alpenglow on Mount Maude and Seven-Fingered Jack
Steve on the lower Lyman Glacier
The lower part of the Lyman Glacier Icefall. Our route
went up the ice tongue in the middle of the photograph,
then straight up the icefall.
View of the icefall from the base of the route.
The summit is the dark pinnacle on the left.
Steve climbing toward the icefall
Steve, on the summit
Elain, on the summit