Mount Fury (West Fury) is second-highest after Luna Peak in the Northern Picket Range. It lies in one of the remote places inside the national park. Even the direct route via Luna Col and Access Basin can be time-consuming.
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Mount Fury (West Fury) at a Glance
Access: Ross Dam Trailhead
Round Trip: 41 miles
Elevation Range: 1640′-8280′
Gear: helmet, crampons, ice ax, rope
Route Info: summitpost.org, Cascade Alpine Guide, nwhikers.net
GPS Track: available
Dog-Friendly: no pets
Friday, July 31
Overview > Day 1 > Day 2 > Day 3
Water Taxi + Big Beaver Trail + Access Basin + Luna Col Camp
The Preface
I planned to climb Mount Fury (West Fury) alone until Chandler texted me on my drive to Marblemount. Shockingly, he asked if I had more peaks in the Pickets to climb as if he had read my mind. But it was more surprising since he hadn’t wanted to backpack.
After getting a permit for the weekend, I drove back to Concrete for cell reception. I called Chandler to firm up last-minute plans and answered any questions. How exciting that it’d be his first backpacking slash climbing trip.
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Water Taxi to Big Beaver Campground
We met at the Ross Dam Trailhead in the morning and hiked one mile to the dock. The earliest water taxi I could reserve was for 9:30 AM. But since we didn’t see anyone at 8 AM, Chandler called the resort and asked.
Luckily, the driver had dropped off the previous party much sooner and returned to the dock. He then took us on a short, scenic ride to Big Beaver Campground. The extra hour could let us reach Luna Col before sundown.
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Big Beaver Trail
We took several water breaks over lots of chattering. The last people we saw were a group of three climbers from Luna Col plus a hiker by a stream. Meanwhile, I tried not to step on the gazillion baby frogs en route before reaching Luna Camp at mile 10.
We continued for another mile past the camp before picking a random spot to leave the trail. There were minimal down trees and light brush. At the same time, we worked our way toward Big Beaver Creek.
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Big Beaver Creek
Like the time before, the massive Devils Club along the shore made it hard to see the water. Even with the GPS point from my old trip, we could not locate the log jam. So we decided to look further down the creek.
Luckily, we found another log jam 500′ downstream that looked unfamiliar to me. I was glad the skinny trees held our weight so we could cross after all! But I kept wondering what had happened to the old crossing.
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Access Creek Trail
Soon, we made our way back north toward Access Creek. Just around the creek bend was a much larger log jam we’d use on the exit. Without stopping, we crossed Access Creek to the north side and continued.
I was glad Chandler spotted the orange flagging, leading us to the climber’s trail. Otherwise, we would’ve spent more time on the lower ridge like I did the last time. We lost the steep path at 3400′ just as the terrain eased.
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Access Creek Basin
We scrambled through the semi-open forest before Chandler spotted more flagging, leading us back on the faint trail. From there, we were within earshot of Access Creek. The path soon took us through dense slide alder by the water.
We continued past the fork at 3850′ by the water for another 100′ before realizing the mistake. So we returned to the left fork and found the way to the south side of the creek. Soon, the looming Luna Peak above the basin came into view.
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Luna Peak Southeast Shoulder
We followed the cairns strewing the talus and boulder-hopped up the basin. The spur paths before the small forest all went in the same direction while hugging the creek. Soon, we followed a faint trail before going south into the snow-free gully.
The lower gully extended through trees and short shrubs with mainly rock ledges. As it steeped higher up, big rocks gave way to scree, with snow below the ridge. But we could skirt around it and soon reached the crest at 6400′.
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Mount Fury (West Fury) via Luna Col
We had our first view of the Southern Picket Range. It was exciting to watch Chandler’s reaction seeing it up close for the first time. We stayed at 6400′ and rounded the corner to the south with another impressive side of Luna Peak.
We traversed the next mile while sometimes slipping on the grass. Snow below the pass was avoidable, but the rocks soon became hard to scramble. So we put on crampons and went straight up over snow and slabs to the 7200′ col.
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Night One on Luna Col
We reached the pass earlier than expected and took time to find decent bivvy spots. A tiny pool of snowmelt on the saddle offered enough water for the evening. Vibrant colors soon filled the western sky at the day’s end.
Tomorrow would be a long day, so I was glad to be up here on day one. So far, Chandler has done great with the long approach but didn’t care for the army of bloodthirsty mosquitoes. Since I brought a bivvy sack, I let him use my head net for the night.
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Saturday, August 1
Overview > Day 1 > Day 2 > Day 3
Mount Fury (East Peak) + Mount Fury (West Fury)
Point 7360
Another bluebird day, and we left camp at 6 AM with breakfast on the go. But we were off route as soon as we walked onto the snow below Point 7360. So we double-checked the map and saw the red ledge around the high point.
Back at the col, we went through boulders and reached the access ramp shortly. It soon took us around the west of Point 7360 down to the meadow, where we started seeing cairns. Soon, we went up to the next high point above a steep scree gully.
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The Crux Tower
I saw the snowfield below the scree gully earlier, which we bypassed by hugging the buttresses. We soloed through the steep tower with several low-fifth moves. I found it quite enjoyable moving through the sloping granite rocks.
Atop the tower, the route to East Fury Glacier suddenly became apparent. Meanwhile, I noted the snow ramp at 6600′ that’d let us access the glacier. Soon, we followed the ridge and continued down the south slope.
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The Broad Basin by Mount Fury (West Fury)
We went around several outcrops before the 7000′ saddle. Then we dropped onto the grass and bypassed the snowfield in the basin from below. We filled the bottles with snowmelt before aiming at the 6600′ snow ramp as the terrain steepened.
It took several acrobatic moves to go through the steep slopes. We soon rounded the buttress via the snow ramp up the snowfield. Meanwhile, a lone mountain goat watched us at a distance as we continued below the glacier.
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East Mount Fury Glacier
The incline lowered from 7400′ to 7800′ as we bypassed a few crevasses over snow bridges. Then came the most unpleasant part for me–steep ice. We hugged the wall of Point 8280 as Chandler dashed up, but it took me longer to reach the saddle.
Chandler went toward Point 8280 from the saddle, thinking it was East Fury. But I quickly pointed at the arête on the other side, “Um, hello? It’s that one.”. So he backtracked across the saddle and went up the steep snow smoothly.
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East Mount Fury Summit Views
The arête took us straight up the summit ridge before going through some boulders. Ok. So, it could be the best spot to view the Southern Pickets! We dropped our overnight gear and read the summit register entries before leaving.
Mount Fury (West Fury) looked gnarly from here, and I struggled to identify the individual towers noted in other reports. But our first job was to drop onto the west, followed by the steep traverse below the jagged ridge.
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The Three Towers of Mount Fury (West Fury)
We neared the saddle after going past several outcrops. Soon, we realized that the headwall on the other side was, in fact, the first tower. So we bypassed it by dropping 100′ on the steep snow to reach the class 4 rock ramp.
We bypassed the tower and worked our way up through heather and slabs. Soon, we were at the notch between the first and second towers. We immediately located the south-bending, class 4 scree ramp before rounding north of tower two.
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Mount Fury (West Fury) Summit Ridge
The narrow ledge behind tower two led us to yet another steep scree ramp. We saw a rappel station en route but moved down via the exposed slabs. We soon bypassed tower three from the north via the notch with several low-fifth moves.
The route took us to the crest, but we wouldn’t see the summit until after passing several more pinnacles. We moved to the north side from the notch above the last snow ramp. Then we scrambled on terrible, loose rocks to the higher gap.
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Mont Fury (West Fury) Summit Views
We traversed sideways from the notch over sloping slabs to the summit. Finally! It took us 2.5 hours to come here from East Mount Fury, which was exhausting. But hello, the views?! It was undoubtedly one of the most remote places I’ve visited in the Cascades.
The climb was worth all the sweat and cursing. But East Mount Fury still held the most glorious view of the Southern Pickets. Meanwhile, we were closer to the other Northern Picket peaks, including Phantom Peak.
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Leaving Mount Fury (West Fury)
We didn’t spend much time here since it was a long way back to Luna Col through East Mount Fury. But I stayed another 10 minutes for more photos. Before long, I caught up to Chandler before bypassing tower number two.
As we retraced our steps, we climbed up to tower one instead of going around it. Then we spotted the noted rappel station on the east, which looked sketchier to me than it did for Chandler. But if others had taken the same route, it could be fine, I guess?
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East Mount Fury and Out
Our 60m rope barely reached the top of the steep snow. Then we rotated between rocks and snowfields, which made putting on crampons and taking them off old very fast. Chandler followed our tracks as I opted for the mostly snow-free lower route.
We didn’t linger on East Mount Fury before retrieving the gear and down the snow arête. Then came the agonizing part–steep ice–again! My left heel has bothered me all day. That, plus my lack of passion for snow, took forever to go through this section.
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Back to Luna Col
Even as the sky darkened, I wanted to sleep on Luna Col tonight. I wasn’t sure how Chandler felt about making the push. But I was all for it when he said he wanted the same thing! After meeting back in the broad basin, we headed out at dusk.
We downclimbed the crux tower in the dark, which posed no issues. Going up the first steep scree gully was exhausting, but it only lasted 150′. To our surprise, three new tents were at the saddle as we fumbled our way back to camp.
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Sunday, August 2
Overview > Day 1 > Day 2 > Day 3
Access Basin + Big Beaver Trail + Water Taxi
Back to Access Creek Basin
The group in the other tents woke up early and left the pass after loud talking. Chandler and I packed up and started moving at 6:30 AM. Since I didn’t want to deal with snow today, we opted to find ways around all of it.
Before long, we were on the southeast shoulder, looking down atop the gully. Morning fog in the valleys below formed a magical scenery. Alas! After one last look at the Southern Pickets, we were off to Access Basin.
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Back to Big Beaver Trail
We found parts of the trail we had missed on day one. But we soon lost the path again right before crossing Access Creek to the south side. Then we scrambled some more and aimed at the massive log jam.
This time, we crossed the creek with ease. Then, back on the other side, we contended with more Devil’s Club and popped onto the trail. Chandler was very excited about being back on a beaten path.
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Back to Ross Lake and Out
The pain in my left heel persisted, and the approach shoes exacerbated the discomfort even more. In turn, the 11 miles out to the dock took much longer. I asked Chandler to go ahead so I could take my sweet-arse time and rest if needed.
Eventually, I was 10 minutes late for the water taxi pickup, but the boat was also late to get us. After a short break by the serene lake, we took the scenic ride back to the dock. Then came the one-mile walk uphill to Highway 20. Ugh, as if!
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Looks like a great climb John! I had my first look at the Pickets over Labor Day through Luna. Fury is very beautiful and from what I could see getting through the rock to the glacier then up that steep part looks very hard. I was surprised how long you go before ever seeing Luna and then the South Pickets range. For us, that wasn’t till the second day! We camped down near Access Creek. The boat was definitely a highlight but even more the swim in the lake while waiting for the pickup soothed my tired, hot body!