Beautiful trail! The loop requires navigation skills, bushwhacking, off-trail travel, and scrambling. We planned our route in advance, which helped a lot. There is no established trail for most of the time, and there are a lot of spur trails that could be confusing. Helmet needed for scrambling bits, even just on the loop itself. Lots of scree and talus.
Wonderful views of Glacier Peak, the Entiat Range, and Rainier all around. Marmots everywhere. Flowers everywhere. Meadows and amazing vistas everywhere. The trip exceeded our expectations.
We went up toward carne first, ending with the descent out of Leroy. Camped about 6 miles in, about 1.2 miles away from the base of Maude. Didn't see a soul on day 1. Saw about 3 parties on day 2, until we got to the Phelps junction. Then we saw lots of people.
Summiting Maude requires crampons and ice axe. Maude and ice lakes is the only area with snow.
7FJ is full of loose rock. We ran out of food, and knowing we had a long descent of over 8 more miles, had to call it about 1000 feet from the summit. Next time!
6000 foot gain and 17 miles.
Fun detail- the earthquake happened while we camped. We had no idea. However later in the morning as we hiked towards Maude, we heard a ton of what seemed to be glacial booms/aftershocks. I used my InReach to contact family and they told me about the quake. Crazy!
Comments
noheaperture on Carne Mountain High Route, Mount Maude, Seven Fingered Jack, Phelps Creek
Did you camp on the saddle above ice lakes on the walk up to mount Maude? Was ice lakes still frozen? Was gonna do the carne my high route there with my dog if it’s relatively snow free by the lake and that saddle.
Posted by:
noheaperture on Jul 15, 2019 04:27 PM
WifeHusbandPuppy on Carne Mountain High Route, Mount Maude, Seven Fingered Jack, Phelps Creek
Ice Lake was not frozen. There is snow in the basin and the lake. We camped about a mile away from Maude. There is a dirt site right above Chipmunk Creek that’s really nice.
Posted by:
WifeHusbandPuppy on Jul 15, 2019 06:38 PM
dropthehike on Carne Mountain High Route, Mount Maude, Seven Fingered Jack, Phelps Creek
Looking at connecting 7FJ and Maude next week. Do you recall much snow in the West Gully or think we would need ice axe/crampons for an afternoon descent down South Slopes of Maude?
Posted by:
midweekpeak on Jul 20, 2019 09:50 AM
WifeHusbandPuppy on Carne Mountain High Route, Mount Maude, Seven Fingered Jack, Phelps Creek
I would be most comfortable with crampons and ice axe for the south slope. It’s not a lot of snow, but very steep sections especially for the descent
Posted by:
WifeHusbandPuppy on Jul 20, 2019 11:05 AM
moothril on Carne Mountain High Route, Mount Maude, Seven Fingered Jack, Phelps Creek
do you have gpx tracks posted publicly anywhere, or would be willing to share? thanks for the beta :)
Posted by:
moothril on Aug 25, 2019 11:22 AM
WifeHusbandPuppy on Carne Mountain High Route, Mount Maude, Seven Fingered Jack, Phelps Creek
You can see my garmin track here, although I didn’t run it for Maude and I was using ultra track so it got all squiggly on me!
Check out my mountaineering activity on Garmin Connect. #beatyesterday https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/3839242341
Posted by:
WifeHusbandPuppy on Aug 25, 2019 01:10 PM