glacial joy | kyes peak via columbia glacier

17 miles . 6900 ft gain . 7280 ft high

Henry M Jackson Wilderness and Wild Sky Wilderness

After a couple weekends of backpacking and a weekend of taking it chill, I was mentally ready to tackle a long day in the mountains. Scrounging for the right intersection of partners and objectives can sometimes pose a difficulty but I was excited when Kyes Peak was suggested, throwing out some of the more “chill” peaks I was envisioning. But it was on my list for a long time. It was in the Peggy Goldman Washington Scrambles book after all and obviously I had to at least try it! I’d seen many blogs and trip reports about how sketchy the summit block would be, but with a solid partner, I wasn’t too worried about our prospects.

There’s some trips which I can lead completely on my own, no doubts in mind. Others where I prefer to trust other people. And the happy medium where everyone can hold their own weight and encourage each other on and quench all unnecessary fears. Our running thought throughout this trip: we can turn back whenever we feel like it.

Unlike most people taking the ridge up to the summit, we decided to check out the other route via the glacier. Wyatt had a great idea of checking it out first since it was more unknown and less risky to attempt this route from the lake instead of attempting it on our way down from Kyes.

Blanca Lake

To get to Kyes, the best way is starting at the Blanca Lake Trailhead. Not only is the gravel road fixed from a washout from years ago, the road from Index to the trailhead turnoff is now open this summer! This means that it is only a 1.5 hour drive instead of 2.5 hour drive. Originally the road goes around the Wild Sky Wilderness Peaks and takes a long gravel road, where you can only drive about 20mph instead of 40 mph. Saves time! Wahoo!

Anyway, we got a late start to avoid the morning clouds in hopes for a clear summit view. We took just about 1.5 hours to get to the lake, or at least to the ridge before the descent to the lake. This is only half the distance and elevation gain, but don’t get cocky because the rest of the route is off-trail and 3x as slow.

Once we got views of the lake, we spent a good hour or so enjoying the views, taking pictures of every single angle we could find. Eventually, we decided to leave the crowds and cross the lake. I think in past years there have been better logs to traverse. We took the more open logs further away from the mouth of the lake. I decided to take off my shoes while Wyatt successfully crossed without getting his shoes wet. Poles are key!

Getting to the Columbia Glacier

We were unsure what we’d find along the lake. We imagined a bad bushwhack with no trail, but in fact, a very good trail exists and we were able to follow it all the way around, often walking on the shoreline rocks instead of the actual trail. There were parts that were more brushy, but nothing bad, in my opinion. It’s astounding the fact that no one crosses the lake and we immediately got solitude. The stoke was high because we set expectations much lower and it was definitely fun by all standards of this summer for me. The temperature was moderate and I never overheated. The cloud coverage was perfect, coming and going at the right time.

At last, we started finding more wildflowers and the base of our climb. The first section was between boulder hopping and navigating fragile heather slopes. It’s fairly straightforward and we quickly found ourselves on the cutest platform with both a view of Blanca Lake and the exposed Columbia Glacier. Take your time to figure out a way across Troublesome Creek. I actually had to create my own rock path to connect all the dots to keep my feet dry — or you could take your shoes off!

We decided walking on the east side of the Columbia Glacier Lake would be easiest since there was some steep ice on to navigate on the west side. It was fairly breezy getting onto the glacier and due to the low angled terrain, we felt comfortable without crampons or ice axe. There’s definitely some crevasses, so watch where you step, especially on some of the softer snow. You wouldn’t fall too deep but it would be terribly annoying to get yourself out. We wandered our way up until we got to the base of the scramble. We weren’t sure about a potential moat but all was smooth!

Connecting the Columbia Glacier to the standard route

Right above the snow finger in the gentlest slopes, we found an easy class 3 scramble (sorry no pictures) to the heather slopes around 5500 ft. We started making our way south so we can skirt under a steeper ridge at 5800 ft (we even dropped down to 5700 ft for an easier path and lower angle terrain. I’m sure you could have kept going up from the scramble gully to 6400 ft and then traverse across, but I liked our method because it got us quickly to really easy walking terrain of solid rocks and minimal heather slopes. It was so smooth sailing, I wasn’t worried about time.

At around 6400 we started to see other people , just 200 ft shy from the ridge col and where the standard path meets us. Here we had a bit of snow and we started up the annoying loose kitty litter terrain. I’m convinced that all of the Monte Cristo peaks have terrible rock like this. Apparently 2 other parties climbed Kyes this day. So a total of 4 groups, which isn’t all too many, but more than I expected. I wondered if any camped near Virgin Lake! The group we met up with wondered about descending the way we came up since they weren’t a fan of the bushwhack, but we suggested them not to without more research. I suppose we could’ve dropped our gpx tracks directly to them haha, but not knowing where you’re going can be dangerous and arduous. Particularly knowing which gully to down climb would be tricky to find without proper research, though not impossible.

Kyes Peak

Okay, so onwards we went in and out of solid rock, but mostly a lot of low angle kitty litter terrain. And by kitty litter I mean the kind of small pebbles that roll from under you like a cartoon character on a floor of marbles. It’s definitely one of my top 5 least favorite terrain, among steep dirt slopes. There is a faint trail you can follow that first skirts the first false summit bump. Then we kept going and quickly crossed over to the snow which was much easier and safer travel (imo) than the pebble-crusted rock. Fear not for the peak looks farther than it really is. Once we got off the snow, it was just another 100 ft to the summit. Breezy!

Except not. The crab walking was so real. Up and down it was a bit tenuous. You can definitely find solid, grippy rock. Well, not exactly solid, but solid enough to ignore some of the loose pebbles. There’s 2 catwalks that are really narrow for your feet, so take good care to cross over. I’d call this type of rock crumbly with kitty litter. The Kyes Peak allows quite a few people on it, so take in the views.

The standard de-proach

It was close to 4:30pm when we got to the summit, about 7 hours from the trailhead. Decent timing for a pretty leisurely pace. But I was determined to get down before sunset before 9pm. We didn’t spend too much time on the summit before I decided it was time to crab walk my way down again. Wyatt was much more adept at this and was kindly patient to wait for me. Snow was again, smooth going. Then back to the icky slopes before the ridge traverse. We dropped down to 6200 ft and traversed under the steep slopes till we reached southern edge of the ridge. Some of those cliffside are wild!!

There was a faint enough path here and there that we could follow to get down to the 5400 ft saddle. From here we kept losing the trail and it was a proper bushwhack for us. It was 100% social trails and we relied heavily on old tracks for some help – you really don’t need to, just traverse and maintain your elevation more or less. I think looking back I see a more mellow terrain at 5300 ft instead of traversing the 5400 ft contour line.

Popping out to an open field, start climbing back up the ridge. The trail really fades in and out here too. You’ll have skirted past the known 5800 peak (aka Blanca Lake East). Now you’re headed to the east side of the ridge for Point 5600. We kept skirting the east side until we passed a second lower bump, slowly losing some elevation until we found the prettiest little hilltop for a break. All along, the trail is more defined than the 5400 ft traverse under Point 5800. Sorry for all the numbers!!

Don’t get your hopes too high because there’s another nasty (to me) descent down the ridge. It’s steep and it’s slow going, but not too much bushwhacking, just steep loose soil. Once you’ve descended to 4800ft, give yourself a sigh of relief because now the hard part is over. It’s truly breezy to get back to the main trail near Virgin Lake (I can’t remember what signs are there if you want to approach this way, but it’s not hard to miss). I think this whole deproach from the summit took us 3 hours.

And lastly, you’ve got a nice trail for the last 3 miles back to your car. We saw absolutely zero people, it was wild! I guess no one wants to be out here in the dark. We were back to the car well before it was sunset. A full day indeed!

Let me know if you scramble here! Have fun other there!

Notes

• If you’re planning to do the loop, I think I would still recommend going the glacier method first then the ridge, clockwise. The ridge is mentally taxing, so be prepared for that. It would be reasonable to go up and down the glacier route. We got a note back at the car from the group we met and it seemed like they weren’t a fan of going both up and down the ridge.
• The ridge isn’t terribly hard to follow, except it is densely treed and more heavily bushwhack-y when traversing under Blanca Lake East, Point 5800.
• If you’re not going via the Columbia Glacier, the stats are probably closer to 13 miles and 5500 ft gain.
• I’d consider the difficulty class 2 before the summit block and class 3 on the block. But due to the terrain itself, I’d bump it up a notch and call it class 4 or at least class 3+ because it feels so loose. The little scramble above the glacier is on solid rock but is also squarely a class 3 scramble for 10 feet.
• Use your own discretion for traveling up the glacier. We did not rope up. For us, crevasses remained small and known.
• You can camp near Virgin Lake and there’s a pit toilet on the opposite side where a great campsite is. No camping allowed at Blanca Lake.
• There’s also plenty of spots along the ridge to camp – use your discretion on where, but basically anywhere that looks pretty flat on a map on the ridge is game.
• There is a faint trail on the west side of Blanca Lake. The hardest part is crossing the lake to the other side. Apparently the Columbia Glacier gets visits from researchers every year! Check it out here at the North Cascade Glacier Climate Project by Dr. Mauri Pelto

Photos taken on Canon 5D Mark IV