Cannon Mountain, as seen from the northwest ridge (photo taken in March 2004)
After our previous attempt, Elain and I had been wanting to return to Cannon Mountain to try climbing the North Couloir and to finally tag the summit. With unsettled weather predicted for the weekend, we decided that a moderate scramble east of the Cascade crest would be a good idea. So we packed up and headed for Leavenworth. In contrast to our previous visit, we were able to drive all the way to the Stuart Lake trailhead. We reached the trailhead at 9:00 PM, and were soon asleep. About 2:00 in the morning, we were awakened by a group of climbers chatting nearby. The climbers were soon on their way, and we went back to sleep. At 4:00 the alarm went off. We packed our backpacks and were walking by 4:30 AM.
We made good time walking along the old logging road, until we reached the giant wash-out about a mile up the road. At this point, we descended steep dirt slopes until we could traverse across the wash-out. On the other side, we bushwhacked uphill through very unpleasant devil's club and slide alder, until we finally regained the road. We followed the road all the way to the switchback, where we left the road and started walking up the creek drainage. About 500' higher we reached the snow line, at which point we were able to move faster because the brush and talus were covered with snow. At 5700', we reached a broad cirque below the North Couloir. Elain commented on how small the couloir looked. We crossed the circue and started up the couloir at 8:00. As the couloir did not look very steep, we decided it would be fastest to ascend unroped. The couloir was mostly excellent neve, and the icy runnels in the center were perfect for cramponing. At the top of the couloir, one ascends to a ridge on the right-hand side. The angle steepens just below the ridge, but we were easily able to find a line that avoided the cornice. I reached the ridge at 10:15, and Elain joined me shortly thereafter. Apparently the view of the couloir from the cirque had been significantly forshortened, because the altimeter confirmed that the elevation gain of the couloir was 1800'.
It was cold and there were clouds over Cashmere Mountain, but we had blue skies over us. We had a mile of ridge scrambling ahead of us, so we did not linger. We bypassed Point 7989 on the right-hand-side, and started scrambling along the crest of Cannon Mountain's Northwest Ridge. This turned out to be a mistake, as one is forced to spend a lot of time doing routefinding to weave around large blocks and spires that periodically block the ridge. After about 300m of scrambling along the ridge crest, we dropped down on the west side of the ridge to the snow line. We sidehilled at roughly 7800' on shaded wind-crust snow, until the ridge made a distinct turn to the left, towards Cannon Mountain. We ascended back up to the ridge, and started scrambling along the south side of the blocky ridge crest. The going was mostly class 3, and whenever we came to a move that looked unpalatable in our plastic boots, we were able to find an alternate route with little trouble. At a particularly exposed section leading back up to the ridge crest, we roped up with a 75' interval. Soon thereafter, we spied sandy class 3 slopes leading down to the northeast towards snow slopes. Above us on the ridge crest loomed a large collection of spires. The right (south) side of the ridge looked very exposed, so we opted to descend 100' to reach the snow. We descended and traversed slushy snow slopes for another 150' to get around a tongue of rock extending down from the big spires, and then spied a steep snow gully that led back up to the ridge crest. Still roped, we ascended the gully to a sandy saddle at the ridge crest. Frustratingly, the altimeter read 7960', just the same elevation as we had several hours previously. Fortunately, the weather seemed to be holding, with minimal wind and clear skies over Cannon. We were grateful that all the clouds seemed to be concentrating on the range of peaks to the west.
From the col, we traversed out onto the north side of the ridge, and climbed blocky class 3 rock until we reached snow again. The shaded snow finger was quite icy, so we put on the crampons at this point. We ascended the snow finger back up to the ridge crest. At this point, we scrambled back to the east side of the ridge, and climbed snow to the summit dome. Above the summit dome, just a bit of rock scrambling led to the summit. We reached the summit at 2:15 PM.
After a brief break to hydrate and eat, we discussed our descent options. The headwall leading straight down to the Coney Lake basin looked steep and would be very slushy, so we decided to descend via the northwest ridge. It took us about 2 hours to reach the snow slopes on the west side of the ridge. From there, we started a descending traverse to the north, then northwest. It was easy plunge-stepping in the slushy snow for the first 1000'. Beyond that, the snowpack was pretty isothermal, and we were frequently plunging into unseen pockets in the snow. When we heard the welcome gurgle of a spring, we raced over to it and filled up our empty water bottles. Both of us were quite dehydrated. As we descended further, the snow gave way to terrible brush. Below 5500', we had to descend about 1300' of terrain that had a tremendous amount of downed timer, probably due to the 1994 forest fire and subsequent avalanche cycles. It was like being in a maze, penned in by a lattice of downed trees on all sides. Our progress slowed to a crawl, and it was 8:15 PM before we reached easier slopes at 4200'. At 3800' we reached the old logging road just as the daylight was starting to fade. We reached the Jeep at 9:00 PM. Our faces and gear were smudged with soot, from scrambling over the charred timber from the fire. Our good fortune continued; we reached the McDonald's in Leavenworth just before it closed.
In summary, we felt that the North Couloir of Cannon was a fun climb and the view from the summit was quite spectacular. However, descending the northwest slopes back to the road was very unpleasant because of the dense brush and the unbelievable amount of downed trees. We are glad that we summited, so we will not have to endure that bushwhack again. If Cannon Mountain is on your list, we highly recommend climbing it in early spring, before the snowpack below 6000' melts out.
Gear we used: 8.5mm x 50m rope (a 30m rope would be ideal), ice axe, crampons, picket, #1 tri-cam, #8 hex, #6 nut, slings for rock horns. Elain used one axe in the couloir, and I used an axe and a tool.
Things we learned:
Cannon Mountain, as seen from the northwest ridge (photo taken in March 2004)
the North Couloir
Steve topping out at the summit
Elain on the summit boulder
Steve on rocks just east of the summit
the Stuart Range, as seen from the summit
the Stuart Range, as seen from the summit
Mount Stuart, as seen from the summit
Elain descending from the summit
Elain downclimbing steep snow on the south side of the ridge