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Mount Fernow in Wild Sky by Beckler Peak via Alpine Baldy / 費爾諾山
Mount Fernow in Wild Sky Wilderness is located west of Stevens Pass near the renowned Beckler Peak. Although not as well-known as its famous namesake, both peaks were named after Bernhard Fernow, a key figure in American forestry. As one of the tallest peaks in the wilderness, it offers stunning views of the North Cascades. Meanwhile, the nearest higher neighbor, K9, sits over seven miles away…
Mount Fernow in the Wild Sky Wilderness
July 15, 2017
Mount Fernow (6190′) Alpine Baldy
On Saturday, Todd joined me for a climb of Mt. Fernow in the Wild Sky Wilderness. This peak had caught my gaze many times before, but I never made an attempt until now. Todd had climbed it 25-odd years ago while living in Skykomish and decided that a repeat performance sounded good. It turned out to be a scrappier trip than I expected and he remembered, although that was largely of our own mis-doing. It was also a day of surprises and revelations.
Going on Beckey’s description for the “southwest route”, we drove up Road 66 without knowing what kind of road conditions we’d encounter. Surprise No. 1: This road has been maintained in excellent condition because it leads to the new Jennifer Dunn Trailhead. This trailhead had never hit our radar. Surprise No. 2 was the newly built trail that leads from here up Beckler Peak. Huh! didn’t know about that either. Surprise No. 3: Road 6610 is blockaded at the trailhead, so there is no chance for motorized progress beyond, as was previously done.
We quickly shifted gears and started hiking up the new Beckler Peak Trail. At the 3900-foot Beckler-Baldy Saddle, we left the trail and headed easterly up steep forest. At 4700 feet, the dense forest opened onto a vast green hillside of ferns and huckleberry bushes.
In various places, the hillslope was ablaze with floral color. It appeared that we’d hit the wildflowers near their prime.
We contoured around to the northeast until the forested summit of Alpine Baldy came into view. Then came Surprise No. 4: The unmistakable line of a trail could be seen cutting across the open face of Alpine Baldy. This trail was not shown on any map we’d ever seen.
We traversed over to the trail and followed it past the summit until close to Alpine Baldy’s southeast ridge. It had the appearance of being very new and nicely built.
Looking back whence we'd come, the trail could be seen ending abruptly in the middle of the open hillslope. This was all very perplexing! The vivid greenery was also strikingly beautiful! There is no doubt how Alpine Baldy earned its name.
We soon left the trail and hiked northwesterly up to Baldy's summit (2.6 hours from TH) and then down the north ridge. Although older editions of Beckey’s book describes this ridge as “easy”, we found that it quickly turns into a narrow, craggy crest with lots of Class 3 scrambling, none of which Todd remembered from 25 years ago (Surprise No. 5!). We were frequently forced to drop below horns and then climb back up. Although not really difficult, it was certainly tedious and time-consuming. On the positive side, Mt. Fernow showed itself clearly for the first time.
Rather than continuing up the craggy ridge to Point 5403, we decided to descend 200 feet and traverse over to Jake’s Lake. This was an error; the side-hilling was slow and awful. It was a relief to get past Point 5403 and stumble across a fisherman’s path that led to Jake’s Lake (4.8 hours from TH). From the lake, things became much easier. We ascended 1000 feet in a rocky and heathery couloir on Mt. Fernow’s south face.
At the top of the couloir, we turned right and continued a short distance on the ridge crest to reach the summit (5.8 hours from TH).
The summit is a cluster of large granite blocks that would make a fine bivouac spot. Surprise No. 6 was discovering that the summit register had been placed by Kevork, the well-known North Cascades National Park climbing ranger. I wonder what brought him this far south to a somewhat obscure peak?
Mt. Fernow sits between three groups of major peaks: The Skykomish Mountains to the west ...
The Monte Cristo Mountains to the north ...
And the Snoqualmie Mountains to the south.
I particularly liked the view of Cathedral Rock, Mt. Daniel, and Mt. Hinman from here.
