Alpine Scramble - Seven Fingered Jack

Trip Report

Over the weekend, A group of mountaineers went out to climb Seven Fingered jack in the entiat basin.. Seven Fingered jack is at 9100 feet and the 12th highest peak in Washington state. I had attempted this twice earlier and turned around once for snow and other for exhaustion

Last attempt pictures from October 2nd 2019

For this attempt - we aimed an overnight - to give the best chance to summit
Gene, Sarah, Cindy and I started at the Phelps creek basin at 10.30am and slowly made our way to camp knowing it was only 6 miles and 3000 feet gain to camp and we had all evening to rest. We had anticipated some rain in the forecast, but it didn't arrive till late in the night

Just as we get into the uphill section- a good break, before we proceed

Views from the summit and views along the trail

We had food and took naps and slept for 9-10 hours and woke up at 5.30am for an alpine start

Clouds rolling in the night

Clear skies in the morning as we start

Summit day was 1.5 miles and 3000 feet gain on steep terrain, requiring navigation and boulder hopping and lose rock skills. We were greeted with great weather along the way

At above 9000 feet the overnight rain was turning the rocks to have a frozen layer and a dusting of snow. The group did well and we summited in under 3 hours. Took some pictures and started heading down slowly

Frozen rock above 8700 feet from the overnight precipitation.

Lose rock was always an issue, but we made it down without any events..we saw larches starting to turn and fall colours in abundance and a well fed marmot before we headed to camp .we reached camp at 11.30am

Headed down on the ramp

Larches just turning

Packed and headed back to the cars by 2.15pm when it started raining

A great weekend, with great people and wonderful views

Map