Franklin Falls Ice Climbing

Published on 2004-1-5 by Michael Stanton

Franklin Falls ice climbing, Jan 5, 2004

Dan Smith and I got a late start from town and began hiking up the snow-covered road to Franklin Falls near Snoqaulmie Pass. It was a pleasant 2.5 mile hike, first on road then trail, mostly level. We reached the falls which had a lot of water coming down, but there were some great curtains of ice mostly to the left. We saw a variety of ideas, imagining setting up top ropes after a lead.

It looked easy enough for me to lead, so Dan belayed me up some ice steps. Solid ice screws provided protection low on the route.

Franklin Falls

There was running water behind the curtain of ice I climbed, and sometimes I would break through the ice and see water spraying inches from my face! About 50 feet up, the ice ran out, and there were some scary moves on dripping rock under snow. I was able to place a sawed-off knifeblade piton here. Traversing left, I reached an ice pillar and placed a screw. I decided against climbing it, as the top out looked like evil vertical brush under a thin layer of snow. Also, the ice was brittle. Later I realized I had dulled my tools by hitting rock under thin ice, so it wasn't necessarily that brittle, but dull tools cause it to fracture. So I traversed left, then went up an interesting ramp of ice mushrooms. Near the top of the ramp, I hurried to avoid spray from a secondary waterfall. I reached an alcove, and after some experimentation, made a belay by slinging a large ice pillar. We had imagined climbing this pillar to trees 20 feet above, but the pillar terminated in a ceiling and would provide some overhanging climbing we didn't feel like doing! Funny how much easier it looked from below...

Climbing on Franklin Falls

Dan came up. He enjoyed the climb quite a bit. It was almost a full rope length, with decent protection and varied terrain. In honor of an event Dan and I shared the day before, I'd call the route "Bald Tires" - WI3. Bring stubbies and pitons.

We rapped off the pillar

with a piton backup, a 60 meter rope was required to touch down.

We bouldered around for a while, then headed home. Many hikers were coming in, and we had been an object of attention for various parties of two and three. "Are the ice climbers still there?" queried one breathless young woman as we hiked out. Good times!