Trip Date: June 11, 2006

Dirtyface Mountain Day Climb

White River Viewpoint
Dirtyface Saddle
Dirtyface Mountain: northwest peak aka Northwest Dirtyface Peak (6243 ft)
(Note: erroneously spelled “Dirty Face” in some references)

Trip Report Summary

Region: North-Central Washington Cascades

Sub-Region: DaKobed–White Range

Area: Okanogan–Wenatchee National Forest

Starting & Ending Point: Dirtyface / White River Viewpoint Road #6403 blockade (Elev. 2900 feet)

Way Points: Southwest Dirtyface Gullies & Southwest Spur & Dirtyface Saddle (road hike & bushwhack & rock scramble)

Summit: Northwest Dirtyface Peak (rock scramble via East Face)

Approximate Stats: 4 miles traveled; 3400 feet gained & lost; 4.1 hours up; 2.3 hours down.

Related Post

>>> Dirtyface Mountain: Southeast Peak via Southeast Face – May 19, 2013

Full Trip Report

I did a fun scramble in the Lake Wenatchee area with Suzanne, Jon, Janet, Adam, Peggy, and Mike T. on Sunday.  Our goal was Northwest Dirtyface Peak, which is the 6243-foot true summit of Dirtyface Mountain, which in turn anchors the southern end of the White Mountains.  Northwest Dirtyface Peak is a mere 20 feet higher than 6223-foot Southeast Dirtyface Peak.

We started from the Dirtyface / White River Viewpoint Road #6403 at 2900 feet.  This old road (marked with an “Auto Tour #2” sign) takes off several miles up the White River Road, and it ends at a concrete blockade.  From the blockade, the long, tall, corrugated palisade of Dirtyface Mountain doesn’t appear to offer any sort of climbing route. As it turns out, there is a reasonably straightforward route to the summit, but the rascal is darn hard to find!

We walked up the partially overgrown road extension for a mile, swatting and cursing at voracious mosquitoes the whole way (Note to self: bring industrial-strength DEET next weekend). When the road petered out, we angled uphill to the imposing “dirty cliffs of insanity.”

We then jogged right to the first distinct gully. This gully had enough steepness and loose rock to be interesting, but it led us to a sequence of continuing gullies on a generally eastward bearing.

Eventually, our route transitioned onto steep forest slopes and then along a blocky ridge crest to a small ridge step at 5900 feet. The summit block still looked far away but it really wasn’t. We curled around to its east face and scrambled solid Class 2-3 rock to the top (4.1 hours from car). The summit register showed that only about 16 people have signed in since Summer 2002.

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Our arrival on the summit approximately coincided with thunder and lightning in the distance. The skies were getting black in a hurry, so we didn’t feel like lingering. The lightning moved closer, and raindrops started falling within minutes.

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We retraced our up-route to about 5300 feet, at which point we encountered a semi-distinct footpath heading down to the southwest. Knowing that the gullies we’d previously ascended would be very unpleasant in the now-wet conditions, we gambled on this footpath.

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Our gamble paid off in spades: the path handily took us down 2000 vertical feet between cliffs and spit us out on gentle forest slopes near the overgrown road. We marched the last mile back to our cars (2.3 hours from summit) feeling pretty relieved to have beaten the imminent downpour.

Route Map

Photo Gallery

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