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| View of the Buckindy Range from Sibley Pass in the North Cascades. (Sketch map. Click photos to enlarge.) | |
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Snowking Mountain
in the Glacier Peak Wilderness was one of the earliest peaks I climbed in
the North Cascades. In the summer of 1975, my friend Gary Brill and I left
our car along the Cascade River and thrashed up the forested ridge above
Found Creek to a camp near Cyclone Lakes. We climbed Snowking from our
camp and returned to Seattle the following day. I was about to enter my
second year at the University of Washington at the time. In my journal I
remarked on the view of "the entire Cascade Range from the Alpine Lakes to
the Pickets, Mt Rainier, Glacier Peak, Mt Baker and the Olympic Mountains."
More than a decade later, in June 1988, I returned to Snowking with my wife, Stephanie Subak. We approached the mountain from Illabot Creek and found a surprisingly good trail, probably made by fishermen, to a 4800-foot lake a couple miles west of the summit. We carried skis and found skiable snow starting at the lake. Stepping into our skis, we climbed into the alpine zone and continued to the 7000ft saddle just west of Snowking's summit. We left the skis there, scrambled to the top, then retraced the route back to our car before sunset. The ski trip with Steph piqued my interest in skiing more of the high country around Snowking Mountain. The most obvious and appealing prospect was a high traverse between Snowking and Green Mountain along a line of summits known as the Buckindy Range.
As the crow files, the Buckindy Range from Snowking to Green Mountain extends about eleven miles. Add in the trail to the Green Mountain lookout and the fisherman's trail from the shoulder of Snowking Mountain to the Illabot Creek road and the distance is closer to 20 miles. The spring of 1989 offered an unusual combination of good weather and a solid Northwest snowpack, so I made plans with my brother Carl and our friend Brian Sullivan to traverse the Buckindy Range just a week after a ski trip with Steph to Green Mountain. From the Green Mountain lookout, I could see that the Buckindy Range traverse was nicely snow covered. On Friday, May 5, Brian and I met Carl in Arlington and drove two cars to the Cascade River Road. Carl had previously scouted the Illabot Creek road and found it blocked by boulders about seven miles short of our intended end point, so we decided to end the traverse using the northeast route to the Cascade River instead of the northwest route to Illabot Creek. We left Carl's car at the Cascade River near Found Creek and circled back in my car through Marblemount and Rockport to the Suiattle River road and the spur road to Green Mountain.
We encountered patchy snow on the Green Mountain trail but a solid snowpack above timberline. Carl waited on the southeast shoulder of the peak as I did a quick jaunt to the lookout and back. Then we began traversing the east flank of the peak a few hundred feet above timberline. After pausing beneath some trees to let a rain shower pass, we continued to a tiny lake at 5371 feet. We continued north, descending very gradually (without skins) and turning a corner around the east side of Point 5890ft. We carried our skis up the timbered crest north of Horse Lake pass and decided to camp around 6200 feet where the crest leveled a bit, offering views of Dome Peak in the east, Snowking to the northwest, and Whitehorse Mountain to the southwest. I noted in my journal that the day's sidehill travel made me wish that my left leg was shorter than my right. Day two arrived with broken clouds. After working around a gully, we made a descending traverse across the basin west of 7435ft Mount Misch. (A barrier west of Peak 7185ft forced us to descend to a flat area around 5200 feet, then climb back up.) Carl and I dropped our packs and climbed steep snow and some rock to the summit, finding that we didn't need the lightweight rope we'd carried. We found two summit registers, one left by a party of Mountaineers who knew Peter Misch, the other by a Mazamas party who argued that the peak should be named for Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood.
Returning to our packs, Carl and I followed Brian's ski track across the basin northwest of Mount Misch. We stopped below Mount Buckindy, ate some lunch, then climbed without packs to the small col north of the summit. We roped up to climb steep snow to the top. After a short rappel from the summit, we skied mushy snow back to our packs. Brian had continued on ahead and we followed his track to Point 6495ft southwest of Mount Buckindy. From there an easy contour led north along the west side of the range to the 6200ft divide between Buck and Kindy Creeks. We camped near this divide, and on the third morning skied a short distance northwest to a 6320ft+ saddle about a quarter mile east-southeast of Point 6662ft on the Kindy-Buck divide. From there we made a short rappel into the upper Kindy Creek basin. This wide-open basin led to the east shoulder of Mutchler Peak (7160ft+). I dropped my pack and skied up Mutchler while Carl and Brian waited below. The summit slope offered a beautiful ski run. After a lunch break we continued traversing to Snowking Mountain and all skied from its summit. Unfortunately, a cloud hovering above the peak spoiled the light for photography. We skied the east shoulder of Snowking to Cyclone Lake and continued northeast to the crest between Found and Mutchler Creeks, a "walk in the sky" with outstanding views. We eventually passed over Point 5791ft and descended open timber north-northeast to about 4000ft. Removing our skis, we continued descending along a north-flowing creek until we stumbled on the climbers trail, and soon enough the Cascade River road, tired and happy. —Lowell Skoog
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