Mount Maude, Freezer, Carne Mountain Surveys

On Carne Mountain

June 7, 2025

15 miles, 7,700ft gain

Resulte: Maude 9082.4ft, Freezer 8033.1ft, Carne 7090.8ft NAVD88

I was looking for a multi-sport top 200 peak and Freezer had recently been identified by Lidar as barely qualify for the list. I had skipped it last time I was in the area since I was unaware it had enough prominence to qualify. It’s close, so I decided to bring my survey equipment to survey the summit and key col just to be sure. I’d maybe tag on some bonus peaks while I was there also.

The route

Usually the access road, Chiwawa River Road, is gated between mid May and mid June for mud season, and this adds about 15 miles to the approach. I usually bike this at this time of year, so I threw my bike in the truck and drove up Saturday morning. Surprisingly, though, the gate was open. I kept driving to the Phelps Creek Road turnoff, and then hit my first blowdown. I think the road has just opened, so nobody had gone in yet to clear this side road. The main road to Trinity likely gets logged out regularly by the caretaker there.

I had my little chainsaw and ax in the truck, so I made quick work of the 15″ tree. It turned out there were about a dozen blowdowns total, some big, but after two hours I cleared my way all the way to the Phelps Creek trailhead. Interestingly, this was the first time I’d actually driven to this trailhead. I’d snowmobiled there three times, biked and skied there a few times, and even walked there once. By 7:45am I was finally hiking. The creek crossings were deep from spring melt, and for one I had to take off my shoes and wade across.

Trees over the road

After a few miles I hit deep snow, but it was firm enough to not need snowshoes. I took the side trail up to Leroy Basin, and it was snow-free down low but continuous snow above 5000ft. I took a bit of a shortcut from the normal route and scrambled up the west face of Maude to the summit around 12:45pm. I then set up the DA2 and hung out for an hour admiring the view. This was my third time climbing Maude, after a September climb in 2018 and a January climb in 2020.

After an hour I packed up and headed down. Big cornices blocked the normal east face route, so I followed the south ridge until it cliffed out, then downclimbed and traversed to the Freezer col. I then hiked up the ridge and set up the DA2 on the summit of Freezer for another hour. My next objective was the key col for Freezer, so I could measure if it indeed has enough prominence, 400ft, to qualify as a top 200 peak.

On Maude

This col is the Freezer-Icy col. The direct ridge was cliffy, so I dropped south, then traversed below the cliffs. I then hiked up, and set up in what I thought was the key col. Unfortunately I later realized this was the incorrect low-point on the ridge. It turns out a key col is not as easy to identify as a summit. A summit is down in all directions, but a key col is the lowest saddle on the ridge. When there are multiple saddle points it’s tough to tell which is lowest since you can’t see from one to another. I guess I’ll have to go back to measure the true prominence of Freezer.

I descended from the saddle, then followed the Carne High Route through deep snow up to Carne Mountain. Luckily the snow was firm enough that I didn’t need snowshoes. I measured Carned, then made a quick descent back to the truck. By then there were six other vehicles in the lot. This was likely the first day of the year that trailhead was reachable by car.

I processed the results to find Maude 9082.4ft, Freezer 8033.1ft, Carne 7090.8ft NAVD88. Freezer was 2.0ft lower than the Lidar-derived height, meaning it’s even closer to the 400ft prominence cutoff than previously thought.