Trip Date: October 17, 2004

Devil’s Smoke Stack Day Climb Attempt

Basalt Pass
Ram-Gar Point
Devil’s Smoke Stack (7600+ ft) attempt
(Note: erroneously spelled “Smokestack” in some references)

Trip Report Summary

Region: North-Central Washington Cascades

Sub-Region: Entiat Mountains

Area: Okanogan – Wenatchee National Forest

Starting & Ending Point: Basalt Pass Trailhead on Chikamin Ridge Road #6210 (Elev. 3700 feet))

Way Points: Basalt Pass & Basalt Ridge & Ram-Gar Point (trail hike)

Summit Attempt: Devil’s Smoke Stack (climb to rock horn via West Ridge)

Approximate Stats: 12.5 miles traveled; 4500 feet gained & lost; 3.7 hours up; 3.0 hours down.

Related Post

>>> Devil’s Smoke Stack via Basalt Pass–Southeast Gully – October 21, 2006

Full Trip Report

On a day when most hikers probably turn off their alarms and stay in bed, Ace, Janet, and Don B joined me for an attempt of Devil’s Smoke Stack in the Entiat Mountains.  It was raining steadily when we met at the Monroe smokestack (where else?) early Sunday morning, but everybody was eager to get out in the hills regardless of weather.  I hoped that the Chiwawa River rain-shadow would favor us, if only in some small way.  It did…in a small way.  By the time we reached the Basalt Pass Trailhead along the Chikamin Creek Road, the persistent light rain stopped long enough for us to change into boots and shorts.

Temperatures were comfortably cool for hiking.  We reached Basalt Pass in good time, then continued northward several miles on the Basalt Ridge Trail.  Traces of snow appeared at 5500 feet, becoming a continuous blanket at about 6000 feet.

For a while, we found ourselves in a relatively clear zone above the valley clouds and below the high clouds, with just enough visibility to appreciate the views normally offered by this wonderful ridgeline trail.  The light rain turned to light snow above 6500 feet, and the snow depth approached 6 inches at the top of Point 7348, known as Ram-Gar Point (2.7 hours from TH).  It was feeling pretty wintry and not at all favorable for rock scrambling.

With a what-the-heck attitude, we traversed farther north on the trail until crossing directly beneath a broad saddle.  This looked like the saddle located just south of Devil’s Smoke Stack, so we ascended northeasterly on snow-covered grassy slopes to a rocky ridge crest, then scrambled slippery Class 2 rock.  A deep notch in the crest stopped us abruptly after 100 yards or so (3.7 hours from car).

Between the cold wind, swirling ice pellets, snow-and-rime-plastered rock, and poor visibility, our decision to turn around was pretty easy.  I reckoned we were about 100 vertical feet and 10 months away from the summit.  Actually, I’m not sure we were even on the correct mountain, but that question will be answered when we return next fall.

We retreated to a sheltered spot near the trail—all of us slipping and falling comically down the gentle grassy slopes—and stopped for lunch.  A bit later, we had another humorous incident:   While following our tracks down from Ram-Gar Point, we suddenly realized that they were animal tracks rather than boot tracks.  Much confused searching eventually revealed the tracks to be bootprints that had been mostly filled with wind-blown snow, giving them the distinct appearance of hoof prints!  The rest of our descent lacked such embarrassments, and we reached the trailhead during a dry period between sprinkles (2.9 hours from high point).

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