Stats: 19.5 miles, 7405 ft gain

Since the trail is now officially open since the pomas fire closure was superseded, me and a group of friends decided to do this trip that we've been hoping to do for a while. They recently opened the road about a week ago after lying new gravel over it. The road is amazing now and passable with basically any vehicle. We didn't see a single person on the trail across both days, but there were two other cars at the parking lot. It started snowing a bit during our summit and there was a light layer of snow, but we didn't need micro spikes or crampons. A ton of rain came down as we were heading home though so I'm guessing it got another inch or two of snow up there. The larches are in prime color higher up, while some of the ones lower down are still a bit yellow.

We came in via phelps creek, the streams were easy to cross but there was still water in case you need to refill. Going up into leeroy basin was steep but when you get there it's beautiful. We ate lunch there and headed out towards freezer pass. Freezer pass is also steep and you need to be a bit careful with footing for the last part but otherwise it's not too bad, no scramble or anything. We then hiked down to upper ice lake where we set up camp on a small hill with wind protection. The sky was clear and you could see the milky way perfectly at night.

In the morning we packed up and  headed towards the summit trail where we left most of our stuff under a tarp. Getting to the summit isn't bad, you never have to use your hands and it's just a steep hike up. There's one section right before you get onto the ridge that's a bit steep and was slippery with some snow on the way down though. On top of the ridge it was extremely windy, with gusts near 30-40mph easily. The summit was super windy so we didn't spend much time up there, but there's a bright yellow summit register under a rock, last entry was from 3 months ago before the fire closure. We then headed back down and grabbed our stuff, where we took the carne high route trail out. The last part of going down freezer pass was a bit hard, as it goes down into a short gulley. Afterwards, stay high up and traverse over to the saddle. This short section to the saddle was a bit hard to follow, but it gets much better afterwards.  Box creek is pretty dried up right now but there's still a couple places to fill water along the way to carne mountain. Down from carne is pretty slow and hard on the knees but I would much rather go down the carne high route than the phelps creek trail. The carne high route was gorgeous and I 100% recommend going out that way if you are considering it.

This was probably the best fall hike I've ever done, and if you find the right window before the heavy snow and while the larches are prime, it is absolutely incredible. 

Beautiful day up Leroy Basis to the ridge of Mt. Maude. We did not make it to the summit due to route finding and snow on the popular route up. Most importantly!! The actual summit and ridge of Mt Maude is currently CLOSED due to the Pomas fire which to us was NOT known. Since this was not posted at the trailhead or on WTA it was hard to figure out so we did not know till checking the USFS website this morning. just wanted to spread the word as just the summit, ridge and ice lake is in the closure order currently. 
https://www.fs.usda.gov/sites/nfs/files/r06/okanogan-wenatchee/publication/alerts/Pomas%20Fire%203%20Closure%20Exhibit%20A%20Map_%2006-17-05-25-14.pdf

Overnight trip to Seven Fingered Jack and Mount maude

Day 1

Arrived at Phelps Creek TH just past 7 AM to a long line of cars parked on the side of the road. There's a trail register but no blank register left.

As mentioned on other trip reports, the first 3.5 mi was a pleasant walk in the woods with minimal elevation gain. After crossing Leroy Creek, the next 1.5 mi to the basin was pretty steep.

We stashed our gear and went up the climber's trail to Seven Fingered Jack. The trail was not hard to follow until the talus/scree field, mostly staying on dirt/heather slopes.

Going up towards the gully, I decided to follow some recent tracks, trending climber's right. My buddy saw cairns and a couple of people coming down the scree path towards climber's left and decided to go this route. She had a hard time going up with all the loose rocks. We did take this route on the way down as it seemed easier and faster.

I also went too far towards the gap below the SE spires. The traverse was easy and there's this short class 3 gully that took me towards the summit with a bit of an 'airy ridgewalk'.

Took us way longer than expected that we were back at the junction of 7FJ/Carne High Traverse at around 6:30 PM. Decided to camp at this flat spot near the Carne High Traverse trail as we were too tired to go up to Freezer Pass.

Day 2

Headed towards Freezer Pass at around 7:45 AM. Refilled our water at this good running stream, approx. 0.4 mi from 7 FJ/Carne High Traverse junction. After that, there were multiple dry creek beds that we had to cross and I didn't see any more water source until Freezer Pass.

From Freezer pass, we dropped around 100 ft and followed a faint trail to go up to Maude. I was probably tired and decided to go up to this random steep gully which was off route. After realizing my mistake, we quickly traversed the scree slope for a bit to the correct climber's route. After that, everything was straightforward with a good climber's trail all the way to the summit. 

It was a busy weekend at both summits so we shared both summits with at least 7-10 other people. The routes to both mountains were also snow free, although the conditions may change this week.

My buddy was keen on doing the carne high route loop but I wasn't sure about doing a part of the route in the dark. It was almost 4 PM when we were back at Freezer Pass and we decided to go back to Leroy Basin Trail as it seemed easier and the last 3.5 mi on Phelps Creek Trail to the TH was pretty mellow. 

Made it back to the trailhead just before 7 PM. There were still many cars at the parking lot too.

Stats: 18.9 mi, over 8,700ft elevation gain, slow pace and plenty of photo and snack breaks.

We did Carne Mountain High Route plus Mount Maude as a loop. We came via Leroy Basin then summitted Maude and then hiked out via Carne Mtn High route. The weather was perfect with no clouds and great 360 views. Larches are peak right now with only a few lime green ones. The trailhead was packed with most people hiking Carne Mtn although we saw a fair number of people going up Maude and at Ice Lakes. Stats: 18 miles, 7,300 ft of gain, moving time 7:26, C2C 9:49.  

Wonderful 3 day tour of Mt Maude area, camps at Leroy Basin and Ice Lakes, exiting the Carne HR. The weather ranged from rain, snow, sleet to glorious sunshine. This area is very popular, for good reason, so will mainly focus on conditions and some photos.  

TL;DR;

• Larches:
  
  • High up ( e.g. ice lakes, carne summit ): 0-1 weeks to peak
  • Mid-level ( e.g. Leroy basin ): 1-2 weeks to peak
• Mount Maude: Straightforward, but long, walkup with amazing views
• Ice Lakes: Always beautiful, but even better in the snow/larches
• Carne HR: Pretty good shape except one section with loose rock
• Snow: 1/2" Leroy, 0-4" Ice Lakes. Melting fast past two days
• People:
  • Leroy: 5? parties
  • Ice Lakes: 15? parties ( but spread out over large area )
  • Carne HR: 20? parties
  • Carne Mountain: 100? people, majority day trippers
• Was wonderful to be joined by C, and picked up two new great friends, W & G, at ice lakes

ACCESS

• Most vehicles can probably make it slowly, but higher clearance preferred
• Chiwawa river road ( FS6200 ) is long.
  • First section is paved
  • Second section is unpaved, stony and wash-boarded in places
• Phelps Creek Road:
  • Surprisingly good shape thanks to recent grading and graveling of the worst spots

LEROY BASIN

• After the flats of Phelps Creek, tilts up steeply for the first half
• No real issues beyond couple easy blowdowns, but brush was drenching in the rain
• Basin has at least half dozen good sites, nestled under the watchful eye of Seven Fingered Jack
• Was a cold wet night as a front tore through, with 1/2" of snow
• Felt lucky though as folks at Ice Lakes got 40+mph winds
• Toilet vault ok, but the top could use a couple screws
• Various scramble plans abandoned due to WX, so after unfreezing our shoes, continued on...

LEROY TO FREEZER PASS

• Fairly straightforward
• Once reaching the pass before freezer pass, you can:
  • Traverse high under upper Maude cliffs, or do as we did...
  • Traverse into basin, then climb direct to pass
• Freezer pass is a wonderful reveal moment

FREEZER PASS TO MOUNT MAUDE

• Drop down a little, then ascend talus before hooking W to meet ridge at ~8140'
• Then follow open slopes to just before summit rocks
• Head for notch just left of summit, then wrap around for final summit
• Basically a long walk up, but...
• Oh my, what an amazing viewpoint!
  • Usual volcanoes, Buck, Dakobed, Chiwawas, Eastern WA, Entiat peaks, etc. etc.

ICE LAKES

• From Freezer pass easy slopes take you the scenic upper ice lakes
• Most camps are on the bluffs above the S shore, before the outflow cliff
  • Note map shows camp site E of outflow...
  • But most coming from Freezer camp W of outflow
• Popular spot, but there are plenty of campsites

LOWER ICE LAKES

• As C & W set off for a late ascent of S Spectacle, G and I did a tour of the lower ice lakes
• The hardest part is getting down off the bluffs to get to the Upper Lake outflow creek
  • There is a cairned gully on the NE part of the bluffs, but looked a little awkward with snow, so...
  • Was shown ( thanks! ) a non-obvious way on the E flank of the bluffs that ended in a class 2-3 ( depending on how tall you are ) move down a slot
• Once on the eastern shores, easy and beautiful ramblings before descending to lower Ice Lakes
• After walking around the stunning lower ice lakes, followed easy slopes SW up a broad valley
• Regaining the upper lakes is off trail:
  • At about 48.12674, -120.79470, followed easy, but loose rock gully, climber's left of outlet stream
  • At about 48.12741, -120.79534, an easy west trending gully pops you out at the top of the bluffs and level ground

CARNE HIGH ROUTE

• After a stunning sunset and sunrise, climbed back up to Freezer Pass, and started the Carne HR
• The first section has a short, but loose rock section, not difficult, but watch those below
• Next couple section have a couple places you may need to check the map, but otherwise straight-foward
• Last section is well established trail
• The hardest part is not constantly stopping to take yet more larch pictures

CARNE MOUNTAIN

• After ascending Carne's East flank, joined the crowds of day trippers
• Was busy, but everyone super friendly, and happily to be basking in larch-ness
• Couple blowdowns, one a tad awkward, others easy
• Stream running near Carne Basin Camp

Always amazed at how lucky we are to live in the PNW.