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Traverse of Indianhouse Mountain
by Ken Zafren, Scree 6/90
Indianhouse Mtn. (4300+), although prominent from the Seward Highway near Indian, seems to be climbed infrequently. On the 29th of April Tom Choate, Chris Zafren and I climbed what we think might be a new route and traversed the mountain.
Our climb started, as many climbs do, by observation and speculation. On the 22nd, Tom and I climbed South Suicide (5005') from the Seward Highway via Falls Creek. From the fork in Falls Creek at about 2500', we had a fine view of the west face of Indianhouse, although we could not see the lower reaches. From the summit of Suicide we observed that a snow couloir led to the very summit of Indianhouse, though the lower part of it was hidden from us. Still, we speculated that it would be a simple matter to climb Indianhouse via this route.
One week later we talked Chris into going along with the intention of climbing the couloir. The weather, which had been clear a week before, was changing rapidly. Still, we had an unobstructed view of the west face from the 3100-foot level in the east fork of Falls Creek. Chris made a short detour to save a caterpillar which seemed certain to perish in the middle of the large snowfield which filled this valley. A large, steepening snowfield led up the west face to a left-trending snow finger. Above this, our coulour was well defined and led to the summit, about which clouds had now begun to swirl. From below it was uncertain if we would be on snow the entire way or if a few rock steps intervened.
I started up on soft snow, which eventually became firm step-kicking snow as it steepened. As we worked left above the cliff bands which guard the northwest ridge, we crossed some fingers of rock on heathery ledges, stopping on one of then for a short break. Some sheep entertained us by cavorting on a most unlikely-looking pinnacle of the northwest ridge. We were now to the left of our couloir and again ascended steep snow before another ledge system led us back into it. Higher up, another icy transition from snow to rock and up a loose, icy gully led us onto the summit snowfield. We hauled ourselves over the steep remnant of a cornice to the summit.
We ate a late lunch, read previous entries in the register, none of which mentioned our route, and discussed our options. The couloir contained some awkward transitions from ice to snow which would likely require belays. On the other hand, the steps were already in.
Occasional clearings of the clouds disclosed a large snow-filled gully splitting the east face and a gentle-looking northeast ridge also seemed to promise a simple descent. In addition, the map showed the east side of the mountain to be far less steep than our west face. We headed down the easy northeast ridge with only a few minor difficulties, knowing that we could traverse into the large gully anytime. A short step of only 40 feet which was very exposed forced us toward the gully, but we worked our way back to the ridge, only to see a much larger step below. This was enough to cause us to cast our lot with the gully. The gully went well enough at first, with a short rock step to add interest, but eventually it ended in a large cliff, the bottom of which seemed an indeterminate distance below us.
A bit of prospecting to the north showed that the northeast ridge was now a long way away and blocked by some formidable cliffs. To our vast relief, we were able to traverse south to a large snowfield which ended in the lower reaches of the large snow gully. A wild glissade down this and down over a thousand feet of narrow gully very nearly deposited us in the stream at a thin spot in the snow. Below, devil's club and alders seemed to block progress,
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