Mount Formidable - Aug 2025
- Lucas Peterson
- Aug 22
- 4 min read
Updated: Nov 18
The Drop Creek approach is a method for accessing Formidable and the Ptarmigan Traverse that has been gaining in popularity in recent years. It avoids glacier travel, making it a nice alternative to the traditional approach from Cascade Pass in late season. Plus, there has been some recent maintenance on the South Fork Cascade River trailhead that has made this approach arguably the most pleasant it has been in years. Huge thanks to the people who have been doing the trail maintenance!
Eric and I were ready to give it a go and departed from the South Fork River Trailhead (which is just a bend in the Cascade River Road). The first mile or so of trail is great, it is an old road, and we were beginning to wonder what all the fuss was about. Beyond the wilderness boundary and the turnoff for the Middle Fork, the trail conditions began to deteriorate, but we were pleased to find that it never got too bad. There were some definite ups and downs, overgrown sections with nettles, and it is overall rougher than your average valley trail, but we were able to make quick progress to the intersection with Drop Creek.
After crossing the creek on a log bridge, we hung a left and began making our way up, initially following a fairly well-defined climber’s path. We were able to follow this for about 500 vertical feet before the ridge flattened out, and we had to contend with some short, dense trees for a perhaps a quarter mile. We then crossed to the north side of the creek at just under 4000’. From this point on the Drop Creek forest was remarkably open, with very little underbrush to contend with. It was about as easy as “bushwacking” gets on the west side of the crest until just below 4600’, where we crossed the creek for a third time and had to deal with a dense thicket of slide alder. We broke out our jungle gym moves and forced our way through in less than 5 minutes.
At this point, we finally broke out into the open and could see the impressive valley in front of us. Formidable lived up to its name from this vantage point! We were able to follow old stream beds, which created perfect rocky pathways through the slide alder for us. At 5600’ we loaded up on water and left the valley floor, climbing steeply up and finding our way through the heather and blueberry meadows. This part is steep, and I could see it being slippery if wet.
Finding a flat spot to pitch the tent proved to be a bit difficult. We were both tired from the heat and were looking forward to setting up camp, which led to a few half-hearted attempts to justify picking some slanting, rocky outcroppings as potential bivy sites, before deciding to continue our search higher. I’m glad we did, because we ended up finding a perfect spot at 7100’. The site reminded me of our own personal Sahale Glacier Camp, with a stream not too far away, and epic views out to the Ptarmigan Traverse. Sunset was awesome that night, and we both felt very lucky to experience it from such a unique and remote location.
The next morning, we were up and moving before the sun, gaining a rocky ridge that led us to the permanent snowfield at about 7400’. I carried crampons the entire trip for just this short hundred-foot section of snow. Eric was fine in microspikes, but I still felt good about my decision, even though it was a bit silly to carry boots and crampons for 5 minutes of use.
Above the snow patch, we worked out way up some class 3 before coming to the infamous “chasm”. Everyone has their own risk tolerance and comfort-level with exposure, but I would say that this section is not trivial and should be treated with respect. The scrambling is not too hard, but the exposure is very real, and there were sections that were dicey enough that we felt it was worth protecting. We ended up pitching out the entire chasm, with Eric placing a few cams as he led across. This made the climbing felt much more secure and fun.
Beyond the chasm was typical Cascades class 3 to the summit. I found this section to be pretty enjoyable, there were some areas of loose rock, but otherwise it was fairly solid and sustained scrambling. Summit views are great, with unique views of Johannesburg, the Middle Cascade Glacier, the LeConte Glacier, and what felt like every major peak in the North Cascades.
We reversed course after a bit and pitched out the chasm once again on our return. The hike out was fairly uneventful, despite the oppressive heat. We were both dragging by the time we got back to the South Fork trail and struggled through “Hot” Box Canyon on our way out. The valley miles seemed to drag on and felt like they took much longer than they did on the way in. We really felt every up and down and were thrilled to get back to the car, which had been coated in a layer of dust from the hundreds of cars that went to the Cascade Pass trailhead over the weekend.
Final Stats: 25.5 miles / 8300 feet of gain
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