Photograph showing the east side of McClellan Butte. The lower part of the north couloir route is visible on the right-hand side.
Elain and I were looking for a moderate, low-commitment scramble for this weekend. After some discussion, we decided to give McClellan Butte a try. We had some reservations about this place, after encountering scary gunfire in the woods on our last hike there in 1999. We hoped that this time, wannabe-Rambos would not be stalking in the woods.
We got a leisurely start, leaving the car at 7:00 AM. Temperatures were quite warm, and the trail was devoid of snow until we reached about 2600' of elevation. Above the snowline, the trail was well bootpacked. At 3000', we veered rightward off the trail and into a clearing that was an obvious avalanche runout. We crossed a small drainage and on the far side of the drainage, we put on our crampons and started walking up the snow slope. Eventually, the slope narrowed and became a gully. We cramponed up the gully for about 500', at which point the gully steepened a bit. We put away our trekking poles and got out our ice axes. For the next 900', the gully was mostly step-kicking on 30-35 degree snow, with the occasional icy patch where we could do some proper cramponing. The sun was starting to warm up the sides of the gully, which was causing some small snow sluffs to come down. The gully is an obvious terrain trap, and I didn't know what kind of sun-warmed snow slopes might be looming over the top of the gully. I picked up the pace. About a half pitch from the top of the gully, the slope angle steepened a bit, so we decided to break out the rope. The sun was starting to warm the slopes above the gully. At this point a climber above us was traversing across the steep slope above the gully, and twice discharged snow that pinwheeled and accreted into a small slide that rumbled down the gully on our right-hand side. My eyes widened, and I was glad that we were not lower down in the gully, where we would have taken a direct hit. Elain led the short pitch of snow out of the gully and to the trees at the base of the north ridge. There, we broke out the rack. I chose a snow ramp to reach the ridge crest, which was steep for about 8 feet or so, but well protected with a sling on a small tree. Once on the ridge crest, we simul-climbed to a belay spot at a tree. From there, we simul-climbed to the summit. The ridge is exposed on the northwest side, but it is mostly third-class cruising. There was still some snow on the ridge, but no ice. We wore crampons on the ridge, but certainly it can be done without.
On the summit, we encountered a party of four who had climbed up the west ridge from the north basin. They pointed out their tracks, which helped us get orientated for the descent. The descent was pretty straightforward. We down-climbed the west ridge (class 2-3) and made our way down to the north basin. There, we made our way around to the southeast side of the mountain, where we eventually reconnected with the trail at 2700'. We ended up carrying our snowshoes over the mountain, but could probably have post-holed along just fine without them.
On the hike out, we heard gunfire, but this time it seemed to be quite far away. Still, it really detracts from the wilderness experience. McClellan Butte, with constant noise from I-90 and frequent gunfire, and with lots of views of ugly clear-cuts is probably the last place I would take an out-of-towner for a hike. Still, it is a good beginner-level alpine scramble/climb.
Gear we used: 50m x 8.5mm rope, ice axe, ice tool, crampons, #2 tri-cam, 1 picket, #3 friend, #2 angle, slings for trees, snowshoes. We carried shovels and avalanche beacons. A single axe would suffice for this route, but having an ice tool was useful for pounding in pickets. Besides, it was fun to dry-tool while climbing the ridge.
Things we learned:
Photograph showing the east side of McClellan Butte. The
lower part of the north couloir route is visible on the
right-hand side.
Elain and Steve, on the summit
Elain descending into the north basin, using the
time-honored Cascades "tree belay".
The north face of McClellan Butte. Our route followed the
upper part of the ridge on the left skyline.
Elain traversing back towards the McClellan Butte trail.