MOUNT INDEX, NORTH FACE, NORTH PEAK (IV, 5.6) Mount Index, Skykomish River Valley, Washington

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Mount Index, North Peak

Mount Index is one of the most widely recognized peaks of the Cascade Range, aside from the big volcanoes, thanks largely to Ed Cooper's many fine photographs which still appear regularly in scenic wilderness calendars. The most striking view is of the North Face of Mount Index's North Peak, a steep 2,500-foot buttressed wall rising from the green fir forests of the Skykomish River valley. It is a precipitous, craggy mountain, with deep gullies, prominent fluted aretes, knifed ridges, and pointy summits. A cirque on the north side is walled in by 3,000-foot cliffs of friable volcanic rock, which regularly avalanche snow in winter and spring and rocks in summer and fall. According to Becky (Challenge of the North Cascades), the peak's name meant "finger" (possibly as in index finger), but with its many sharp rises and drops the mountain's profile more closely resembles a volatile stock price index.

Mount Index's main summit is an easy if inconvenient summit, usually done as a spring snow climb. The Middle Peak, one of the least visited summits in the Cascade Range, was not climbed until 1960, when Fred Beckey and Pete Schoening made the first traverse of Mount Index. Surprisingly, the North Peak, which Beckey says "has come to embody the savagery of the Cascades," was first climbed in 1929 by Lionel Chute and a boy scout, in an epic and widely disbelieved ascent including a forced bivouac high on the peak. Their route up the North Face of the North Peak has become a fairly popular climb. The route is steep and exposed, with 2,500 feet of mostly easy climbing and exposed scrambling up rocks, dirt, grassy ledges, and occasionally tree roots and limbs.

Topo

The route is approached via the Lake Serene Trail. The new trail is 3.5 miles long, and pretty strenuous. Many climbers still follow the old trail, if they can find it; it is faster and more direct, ascending roots and rocks up the steep, brushy slopes. From trail's end, a broad scree gully leads to a saddle at the base of the North Peak. A scree slope leads up from here to a blocky ramp, where the real climbing begins. After traversing the ramp leftward for one pitch, the route traverses rightward on blocky Class 5 rock (several variations up to 5.7 reported) to a brushy ledge that leads rightward around a rib to the base of the great basin. Steep, exposed grass and heather ledges lead several hundred feet up the basin to the base of a slabby, right-angling gully, which is followed several hundred feet to the rib on the NW skyline. The route follows this rib via Class 5 tree and rock climbing, which eases up nearer the summit. The route is mostly scrambling except with so much exposure that belaying seems prudent in places even where the going is easy. The descent is down the route of ascent, via downclimbing and rappelling. Because of the overwhelming exposure, many parties belay and rappel more often than necessary, for safety's sake.

The climb is commonly done in a long day, although forced bivouacs are not uncommon. Climbers should come prepared for that possibility.

Since being featured in Selected Climbs in the Cascades, the North Face of the North Peak has become a fairly popular Grade V winter climb. Under the right conditions, the route freezes up to offer a spectacular and very accessible mixed snow, ice and rock route. Finding the route in shape is a waiting game; the route is notoriously tempermental as a winter climb, and downright dangerous under poor conditions.


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