Alone & Remote： Snow and Choss on Mt Fernow, WA

That's Mount Furnah behind me, and at 9,246 feet, it's Washington's 8th tallest mountain. It's also a smooth, which is why I'm out here. I got to Leroy Basin and climbed Mount Maude yesterday. Furnah is up next. Not the easiest terrain, but 545 starting off. First move is to work my way out of the Leroy Basin, up these walls, and then it just keeps going up about 1,800 feet to a saddle, where I then drop down 900 feet in a frustrating way because I have to merely regain it on the way to the summit, and then all the way on the way back. But that's the way Furnah goes. It's crampon time. It's pretty flat at the start, but I think I'll be able to go up the steep bowl in the end to that coal, and I think I'll just be able to snow all the way down from there too. So good old sharps make this easy. Moment of truth. Will I find snow on the far side or a cliff band? Oh, there's snow, but that's steep. Holy ----. You can see goat prints taking an absolutely mental line. All right, well that last way definitely didn't go. I peeked out enough to find there was a rock band somewhere there. I couldn't really see it very well, so this must be the way that the early season route takes a shortcut. Let's find out. Oh jeez, it's not continuing with snow. Crampon's off. I think it's just a little scramble down to the coal along this loose rock band cliff thing. That's the climbing route across the basin from me. Looks pretty intimidating, but one lesson I've learned is don't turn away when things look hard. Turn back when they get hard, when it's right in front of you. It could just be that it's nice snow ramps and ledge systems the whole way up, so fingers crossed. All right, the climbing begins. It's all uphill from here. A lot of slabby rocks to manage. A lot of loose material, snow, and water. The trick is just to find the rock that's facing upwards a bit for footholds, and then it's fine. Just at about 8,000 feet. The mountain's pretty snowy. Good news for me is the crampons just cruise on up. Here I am at 8,300 slopes of furnow, snacking my face off. Got about 900 feet left to go on this final push. The snow has been really nice. It's in great shape. A little steep in places, but nothing good crampon technique can't take care of. And looking at all the loose talus and stuff, I shudder to think about what this will be like late season. Came up the snow. Now I'm just scrambling up these rocks. For a second I was worried I had to go up that thing, but now I can stay on these rocks. I'm trying to stay on the more solid rock. Not a tramp to follow. A lot of loose stuff, but it's low enough angle, no big deal. 200 more feet. Getting close. Last gully traverse, and then I think we're on our way uphill. Gotta be honest, I still haven't seen the line. Here we go. I'm on the summit of Mount Furnow. Took me a little under five hours from Leroy Basin. Lots of fun snow ramps, but then a lot of on and off of the crampons. Views are out of this world. I mean, it's a little bit cloudier than yesterday, but still. Glacier Peak, Bonanza, and then of course looking at Mount Maude and Seven Finger Jack. And it is my 94th smoot, so I'm getting pretty close to 100, but I still have a few hard ones to go, and if I'm lucky I'll be able to go tag Seven Finger Jack on the way down, and then back up, and then out. Well, well I'd love to stay and enjoy the views, but got a lot of climbing left today. I'm gonna do Seven Finger Jack. As usual on this sort of terrain, it's a lot easier to find a good route on the way down. All right, I think it's soft enough to just plunge up with my boots. Just kidding. The snow is super firm. It's challenging both on the way up and down. Just got to be really careful. All these larches. What a cool basin. It's a little bit sketched out. I mean, first of all, there's a crevasse in the middle of this glacier. Second off, I don't know. What if I get stuck up there? There's a lot of snow and a lot of rock and a lot of transitions, therefore it's a really easy way. Stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion on Seven Finger Jack.