Icy Peak via North Fork Nooksack

Anyone tried Icy from the North Fork Nooksack River approach on skis? While it might be possible to cross Ruth Creek at low water on the Nooksack Cirque trail, I was thinking of skiing in from the south side of the river. There's a road almost as far as White Salmon Creek and then some gravel flats along the river. The river pinches out the flats in at least one spot before the cirque is reached. Just wondering if anyone ever tried this in winter on skis?

I've gone the Nooksack Cirque trail access - it is fine and may be better overall because of a terrace that runs on that side of the valley gives you easy access upstream of the valley pinches you described.

Keep an eye on river flow conditions ( waterdata.usgs.gov/wa/nwis/uv/?site_no=12205000 ) and go when it is lower than average (for winter - not in spring runoff). Usually it isn’t difficult to cross Ruth Creek (logs or just wade it) and the NF Nooksack is so braided as you get up the valley, it isn’t much of an issue to cross either.

A very good trip report from this January gives you an idea: www.turns-all-year.com/skiing_snowboardi...ex.php?topic=27054.0

Stoked:

The short of it: Go in via Hannegan Pass Rd/regular summer trail. Bring light gear.

Although the south side is machine groomed trail, it's not that much shorter. Moreover, this portion of the riverbed is slightly steeper and more narrow than in the cirque and just doesn't offer the efficiency bonus as farther up. I tried this approach yesterday (3/9) and was "forced" into 6 wet crossings in the course of the first mile.

Good luck,

Dave

Thanks for the replies. The river level median is around 300 cubic feet/sec and the actual is currently 900 ft3/sec. It's safe to say it is not a good choice this weekend.

Somehow I missed that trip report by dberdinka. Thanks for dredging it up.

So, it sounds like going in from the south side of the river is not as efficient. Sort of thought that might be the case.

I climbed Sefrit a few years ago in October. At the time we crossed Ruth Creek mostly on logs. Last summer I went to check out the crossing and the logs were gone so it will likely be a wet crossing. Definitely will wait for low water.