Clark Mountain: Tastier than a Clark Bar

We had seen it from afar...

My long-time hiking buddy, Doug, and I had seen Clark from nearby Mt David on a dayhike a few weeks earlier, which got me thinking that Clark might be an interesting objective. It looked even more interesting a couple of weeks later from the summit of Fortress Mtn, from which you can see the swath of glaciers on its north side.

Doug had been interested in seeing Boulder Pass for several years, since we saw it from Little Giant Pass across the Napeequa Valley, so he bit at the chance to head up the Boulder Creek.

There are several options for the ascent of Clark; since I don't have a ton of experience traveling off-trail and would be the most experienced on the trip, I opted for the scramble route via White River, Boulder Creek, shepherd's path from 5000'-6000', along the south summit's south ridge, then the southeast basin of Clark.

In short, this was one of my favorite trips I've done; we had great views from camp, amazing wildflowers, a steep gulley, a steep snow slope, and two fighter jets.

Saturday: Getting to Camp, with a side trip to Boulder Pass

Getting to and finding an amazing campsite was easier than we expected. The trickiest part along the trail was crossing Boulder Creek near its junction with White River; the bridge seems to be missing, so we crossed via a downed tree. Getting on and off the tree at its root end was a bit tricky, but easy enough if you can take off your pack.

Finding the herder's path at 5000' was easy enough (we knew our altitude, so we knew when to start looking for it). Time to herder's path from trailhead: 4 hours, 15 minutes (including time for pictures, lunch, etc.) We dropped our packs here and headed up to Boulder pass to see what we could see. It took longer than I expected for us to ascend the 1300' to the pass - the endless switchbacks make the grade very mellow. Time from herder's path to Boulder Pass: 75 minutes (without packs) After returning from our detour, we picked up our packs and headed along the herder's path; we lost the path briefly near where it crosses Boulder Creek, but it's easy to find on the other (west) side. This path was in very good shape, other than being overgrown in spots (but then again, so is the White River trail at this time of year).

From the Boulder Creek valley, we couldn't quite tell where the herder's path would take us and where we would end up camping. When we reached a flat area at 5500', it looked like that would be the spot. But looking up, it appeared that there might be another flat area a few hundred feet above. Indeed, at about 5800' is one of the best campsites you'll find. Awesome 360 degrees views, marmots grazing, deer frolicking, ample water (at this time of year, at least), and not much wind. We set up our tent right in the middle of a bunch of buttercups. When we walked about 10 yards east to scout out the area, we saw a deer resting in the trees. Time to camp from Boulder Creek Trail: One hour

After dinner I continued up the herder's path to the saddle directly above us to see to see if this might be a possible route towards the summit the next day. The path was in great shape (though a bit muddy); it looked like a reasonable option, even though the route descriptions I'd read didn't say to take this route.

We had seen a mix of sun and clouds all day, but the clouds completely covered the sky above us and started to sink lower as we got ready for bed. Our chances of making it to the summit the next day didn't look too great.

Sunday morning surprise

From inside the tent, I could only see a tiny patch of sky through the little "window". It looked quite grey. At 6:30 a.m., when I finally got the courage to poke my head out of the tent, I was excited to see bluebird skies! (It had just been a bunch of condensation on the window, and without my glasses on, I didn't realize that).

While breakfasting, we watched four deer graze their way up the heather on the north side of the creek near camp. Good times!

After a bit of hemming and hawing, we decided to continue up the herder's path to the saddle as I had done the night before and try to get to the gully which it was "critical" to find at 7200'. It looked like there were two obvious spots on the ridge which a gully night lead down from, but we weren't sure which one we were aiming for. After reaching the saddle, we headed up the ridge until reaching some rocky bits; then we traversed along the east side of the ridge. When below the first notch we thought might be "the one", we realized it was a couple of hundred feet too low. We continued traversing until the second one, then up. Upon reaching the notch, at first the gully we saw looked too steep to be the "easy" one described in the route, but it quickly became apparent that it was going to be a million times easier than any other spot on the ridge. Time to gully from camp: 1:45

To the summit under watchful eyes

When Doug saw the steep gully below us and the snow and distance between us and the peak from the ridge, he wasn't completely confident that his legs would be able to make it down, up, and back, and then back to the car safely. He said he was happy to wait at the ridge while I tagged the summit if I wanted to go it alone. (Doug hasn't been hiking/biking as much as ususal lately; he can normally leave me in the dust on the trail). I was a bit nervous about the thought of doing any scramble solo, but I felt somewhat comforted by the fact that Doug could watch my progress from the ridge. I decided to go for it.

The somewhat scary thing about that gully is that you can't see the bottom of it from the top; it just seems to drop down into the shadows of the ridge. Yikes! But as it turned out, the descent of the gully was pretty tame and I quickly found myself at the first snow field.

Based on a route description I'd read on summitpost, it sounded like the right-hand (east) snowfield was the one to take to the summit; it certainly does allow one to get very close to the summit without touching rock or dirt for a long time. However, there are two problems with this snowfield: 1) It is in shadow until later in the morning, necessitating crampons at 10 a.m. and 2) near the summit, its pitch is significantly steeper than the left (west) one. Nevertheless, I was able to reach the summit using the right snowfield, so it's definitely doable.

A note of caution: If you take the right (east) snowfield, remember that the summit will be a ways to your left (50-100 meters?) when you reach the top of the snowfield, not directly above you as it appears when you are on the snowfield. Time to summit from top of gully: 1:20

After ten minutes or so on the summit (it doesn't have a flat top that encourages lazing about, nor did I want to keep Doug waiting longer than necessary), I headed back down, this time via dirt and rock to the left (west) snowfield, sans crampons, on soft snow (at 11:30 a.m., snow was in decent shape for glissading.) The gully wasn't difficult to ascend, but climbing it without knocking rocks loose was. For once, I was glad that Doug wasn't with me. Time to top of gully from summit: 1 hour.

It's all downhill from here

The two parts of our journey back home from the ridge that didn't go by quickly were 1) roasting in the sun on the Boulder Creek trail and 2) the four miles along the White River Trail that seemed to have gotten longer since we had seen them last.

Those four miles were made more exciting by the thundering of two fighter jets directly overhead about an hour before we reached the car!

Here's the timeline:

Time from camp to Boulder Creek Trail: 0:40
Boulder Creek Trail to car: 3:30 (including stop for second lunch)

Note that though the White River is a rager right next to the trailhead, there's a great mellow place to soak the feet, and easily accessible from the trail, about 50 meters north of the parking lot.

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