Route: Maude/Entiat Icefall Climbed: July 15, 2001 We found this route to be much easier than expected. Beckey describes 9 pitches on the first ascnet in the 1960s. The glacier has moderanted since then and we simul-climbed the whole route. This was mid-season in a low snow year. Approach: Hike the trial to Spider meadows for 3 miles. Leroy creek is the first large creek inside the wilderness boundry. The trail to the upper basin starts on the left (North) bank of the creek. It is a good creek all the way into the basin. The trail traverses around the basin, crosses a 6800 ft saddle, then traverses up to a saddle above Ice lakes. There are good bivi sites on a noll below the saddle, above the lake. The lake is beautiful, and camping on it's south side would be beautiful as well. You can also do the climb from a camp in Leroy basin, but that will make the approach to the route longer. Alternatly, you can do the approach over the Maude-Seven Finger Jack col. This will shorten the distance traveled but may not save time. The climb to the col looks to be on steep scree, you have to do extra climbing to get to the col, and the descent down the east side has some lower cliff bands which must be passed by finding a reasonable gully. If you do try this route I suggest a south east descending traverse toward the glacier. Climbing Route: We foud this very straight forward. The ice fall has a steep cliff on the left and a moderate ramp on the right. We went right and found the climbing to be mostly short steps (2' to 4') and ledges, with some sections of 45 deg ice. Above this we crossed a large cravasse on a good snow bridge. Latter season this may be a more significant obstical. The upper glaicer is low angle and should remain fairly easy. We crossed the bergschrund in the middle where we climbed 10' of 80 deg snow. I can not predict how this will melt out and what kind of difficulties will be encountered later. The headwall was about 150 ft of 50 deg snow. We simu-climbed the route in 1 hr 20 min. From the col at the head of the glacier cross to the south side and traverse east on easy ledges (2nd and 3rd class), rising as you go, till you reach the south slope. Walk up to the summit then back down to your camp. Times: TH to Icy Lakes camp: 5 hr. Camp to base of icefall: 1.5 hr. base of icefall to summit: 2.5 hr. Camp to camp: 5 hr. Camp to TH: 3.6 hr. [Route description written by Tom Unger]