Mt. Fernow and Seven Fingered Jack

Michelle and I spent my birthday weekend in the Entiat Mountains of Washington. There are three 9,000-foot peaks in a row (there are only 9 total in Washington) - Mt. Fernow, Seven Fingered Jack, and Mt. Maude. Our goal was to bag all three, but rain on Sunday kept us from getting up Mt. Maude.

We hiked in Friday evening to high camp at 5,600 feet.

Seven Fingered Jack


Michelle approaching camp


We woke up early the next morning and set out for Mt. Fernow.


Glacier Peak , Chiwawa Mountain, and Red Mountain to the West


The route to Fernow is kind of a pain in the ass - first you hike up to a 7,700 foot col (seen just left of the lowest point in the ridge line below). Then descend back down to 6,500 feet down steep snow and bad talus, then climb back up to 9,249 - the summit of Fernow.

Michelle can be seen in the lower right hand corner


Mountain goats on a ridge of Fernow


The route is just scrambling, with a little bit of route-finding and exposure near the summit.

Michelle on the way up


On the summit of Fernow


Looking across to the North Face of Mt. Maude


The Domke Lake Complex fire near Lake Chelan. Holden village is down there in the smoke.


Then the real fun of climbing Fernow was next, which involved descending back down to the low point and reclimbing back up to the col. From the col, we ascended slopes directly to the summit of Seven Fingered Jack. The weather had been moving in all day, but we were lucky that it was only cold and not raining or snowing yet.

Michelle on the final summit ridge of Seven Fingered Jack, Mt. Maude in the distance.


On the descent that afternoon we considered running up Mt. Maude right then because of the impending weather, but we decided to wait and see if it would clear up, but it started raining around midnight. By the next morning it was pouring, and we made the soggy hike back to the car. Overall a great weekend - nothing technical but a lot of elevation gain (and loss) was had.