Trip Date: May 18, 2008

Mt. Garfield Day Climb

Taylor River
Northwest Garfield Basin
Mount Garfield aka Garfield Mountain (5519′)

Trip Report Summary

Region: Central Washington Cascades

Sub-Region: Miller–Foss Mountains

Area: Alpine Lakes Wilderness

Starting & Ending Point: Upper Taylor River Bridge on Taylor River Road #5640 (Elev. 1200 feet)

Way Points: Taylor River shore & Northwest Garfield Creek & Northwest Garfield Basin (off-trail hike & bushwhack & rock scramble & snow climb)

Summit: Mt. Garfield (snow climb & rock scramble via Northwest Couloir—West Ridge)

Approximate Stats: 5.5 miles traveled; 4900 feet gained & lost; 9.2 hours up; 6.0 hours down.

Full Trip Report

Last Sunday, I joined Fay and Mike T. on a climb of Mt. Garfield’s main peak. For many years, I’d successfully managed to keep this bad boy off my radar screen, but Fay caught me in a weak moment on some ski tour back in the winter. How come every climb seems like a good idea during the winter, and every ski tour seems like a good idea during the summer? Anyway, Mike and I found ourselves willing victims of Fay’s latest alpine obsession in the form of this “Metamorphic Menace of the Middle Fork Valley.”

We started at the upper (second) Taylor River Bridge and followed the right shoreline northeastward for a mile, rock-hopping over a small creek and then log-shinnying over a larger creek (“Northwest Garfield Creek”) along the way. The Taylor River was a frightening torrent due to the recent snowmelt.

Once past the larger creek, we ascended open forest and some brush along its northeastern side for 1200 feet, then slipped and groveled our way down slimy slabs to reach a northwest gully at 2100 feet. Moderate snow slopes led upward to scenic 4400-foot “Northwest Garfield Basin” (4.8 hours from car) located closely northwest of Garfield’s main peak, which towered overhead.

The route from this basin to the west col, which separates the Main Peak from Leaning Tower, was a steep snow couloir with three apparent breaches. Although it seemed unlikely that we could get past all three breaches, we headed up to at least get a closer look. Unfortunately for the mountain, we had Mike on our side.

We crossed the first breach on an improbably thin snowbridge (tested by Mike), and ascended steep snow to the second breach.

This one proved to be the crux, due to its high rock band and slightly overhanging snow brow. Fay and I were ready to turn around here, but Mike casually extracted a shovel from his pack and started excavating a slot through the left edge of the snow brow.

Amazingly, it worked! A half hour later, we were climbing up to the third (partial) breach, which made for a solid belay stance and was easily turned on the right to reach the west col (7.9 hours from car).

From there, we maintained running belays while ascending steep snow, heather, and rock on the west ridge.

We summited at the distressingly late time of 3:50pm (9.2 hours from car), knowing that our tricky descent would involve a race with daylight.

The sheer and convoluted structure of Mt. Garfield was highlighted by the sun’s late-afternoon rays. For a mountain that scarcely exceeds 5500 feet, it is remarkably rugged and alpine. No wonder it has attracted so much climbing interest over the years.

We felt very privileged to stand on this worthy summit, but we still needed to get off! Fay and I made three double-rope rappels down to the west col.

One more rappel from the upper breach got us past the middle breach, whereas Mike simply down-climbed the whole route.

After belaying back over the tenuous snowbridge, we unroped and made haste for the car. Darkness caught us during our last hour of travel along the river shore. Later, having survived this stressful climb, I asked Fay to select an easier peak for her next obsession!

Route Map & Profile

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Photo Gallery

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