11/13/2022 Route: east ridge to father dyer- down crystals ridge Posted On: 11/14/2022, By: jbealer Info: we were able to drive to the upper trail head, but it was really icy in spots on the road. the 2 gates up to the lakes have the upper 4wd road closed. we did not use any SS or traction, some might have like spikes but we felt fine. we did bring and most in our group used ice axes on the class 3 sections and then on some deep snow sections off the ridge of crystal. go get some fun snow scrambles before avy gets to bad. |
|
9/26/2022 Route: East Ridge Posted On: 9/26/2022, By: cougar Info: Basically dry, some miniscule spots of snow in deep shade under north facing rocks, didn't have to step on any. Another climber said traverse from Helen was clear. Same on way to Crystal and all the peaks in the area (got out ito Peak 10 and 9), all dry but a bit of snow forecasted tomorrow. Loose talus is the bigger obstacle past Father Dyer. Fall colors near peak. Young bull moose in the area around treeline. |
|
9/17/2022 Route: Combo Helen/Father Dyer/Crystal Posted On: 9/18/2022, By: Laxer04 Info: Went up Helen and then over to Father Dyer. Stuck to the ridge proper. Super fun class 3 traverse. No snow or ice on route, but you could see the fresh dusting of snow on Quandary. Winter is coming! |
|
7/2/2022 Route: Combo Helen/Father Dyer/Crystal Posted On: 7/5/2022, By: arthurtect Info: Ascended up Helen's east slope (green and covered with wildflowers), then traversed to Father Dyer and Crystal (dry and awesome). Descended down Crystals south slope (hill of loose rocks) and then connected to the Mohawk Lakes trail back to our vehicle. Mountain goats and Big Horn sheep and every flower imaginable! |
|
6/26/2022 Route: East Ridge Posted On: 6/28/2022, By: barnsy12 Info: Crystal lake rd has plenty of water before getting to the lake, but the 4WD road is in good condition. No issues driving to 12k ft in a stock wrangler. Rest of the route is in summer conditions. |
|
6/11/2022 Route: Combo Helen/Father Dyer/Crystal Posted On: 6/12/2022, By: JaredJohnson Info: Climbed Helen Mtn, traversed to Father Dyer, descended Father Dyer's East Ridge. Very little snow and all easily avoidable until below the east ridge near treeline, a small snowfield or two which did not require me to take out the spikes or axe that I had brought. Father Dyer's summit register tube thingy is empty and missing its cap It did look like the surrounding peaks such as crystal had some snow on the ridge. I have photos I might get around to posting |
|
6/19/2021 Route: East Ridge Posted On: 6/21/2021, By: dwoodward13 Info: Summer conditions. Some water running on the road/trail. You can hop around most of it or weave thru the willows on the side to stay dry. Route doesn't seem to be well marked/traveled but its easy to figure out where to go. |
|
6/18/2021 Route: Combo Helen/Father Dyer/Crystal Posted On: 6/21/2021, By: tefensmom Info: Full summer conditions save for a couple minor snowfields (no traction needed) on the descent from Crystal. Trail runners the whole day. We agreed this had some class 4 moves, or maybe we just suck at routefinding. Very fun traverse from Mt Helen to Father Dyer. |
|
6/13/2021 Route: East Ridge Posted On: 6/13/2021, By: ktfoote628 Info: Father Dyer is dry as a bone but things in the area are melting fast so the creek crossings are high and a lot of the lower trails have turned into a stream. I took my shoes off at one of the creek crossings because the water was high and fast and I didn't trust the wet logs... on the way back, I used them but I crawled haha, I started at the 4WD trailhead which I thought was somewhat rough but 3 Subarus made it (when I went down, a lot of Jeeps had stopped lower). I recommend Wheeler Road approach versus Wheeler Trail unless you like slightly sketchy creek crossings. Only saw a CMC group up there today. Definitely an easy class 3, good season warm up. I traversed over to Crystal and will post a separate report for that peak. Wildflowers are starting to pop, even on the scramble itself which was beautiful! |
|
1/2/2021 Route: East Ridge Posted On: 1/2/2021, By: weakenedwarrior Info: Parked at the lower TH which is plowed. From the TH to treeline through Crystal Creek road the trail was hard packed. From treeline to the lake snowshoes are pretty much a requirement - the trail has a good wind crust at times but gets very faint and can get hard to follow. Snowshoes are also very helpful to get to the flat spot 400' up the ridge so don't stash them too early. The ridge was not as wind blown as I was expecting and with all the snow I had a hard time finding the class 3 bypasses to keep it class 2 and I ended up scrambling on the crest for most of the ridge. I had a much better look on the way down to keep it easier. Quite windy from treeline to the lake and even more to go from the top of the ridge to the actual summit but it was manageable while going up the ridge. |
|
9/23/2020 Route: East Ridge Posted On: 9/25/2020, By: berko89 Info: Summer conditions on Father Dyer's East Ridge route. There was a bit of ice on shaded rocks from precipitation the previous night but not in any locations that interfered with the route - in general, twas a fun moderate scramble up dry rock. We continued over to Crystal Peak and descended via the Crystal trail - summer conditions there too. |
|
9/12/2020 Route: East Ridge Posted On: 9/12/2020, By: Ev_p303 Info: Road is mostly clear all the way to the lower lake. Past the lake there was a decent amount of snow but its melting fast. The east ridge itself was mostly clear of snow but I had to stay on the top of the ridge which made it a more solid class 3 climb. The summit ridge still had a good amount of snow but I never even put on my spikes. |
|
9/5/2020 Route: Combo Helen/Father Dyer/Crystal Posted On: 9/6/2020, By: daway8 Info: Did Helen-Father Dyer-Crystal combo with Peaks 10 & 9 thrown in. Absolutely loved the Helen - Father Dyer ridgeline. I considered it more fun than the Sawtooth or Kelso or Quandary West Ridge because there were just so many neat scramble opportunities - plenty of class3+ with some isolated class 4/5 moves here and there which you could go for or easily bypass if preferred. Great ridge for low risk way to build scrambling skills since pretty much all the difficult terrain can be avoided if you're not feeling up for it but lots of fun moves with generally very little exposure for those who choose to stick to the top of the ridge. Route up Helen very easy but seems to go on forever as seen in the pictures I took towards the end of the day's loop. Image 1 is the traverse from a distance (fun stuff near hump in center). Image 2 is the long, long trek up Helen. Didn't notice any smoke except some haze on the distant horizon. |
|
8/15/2020 Route: East Ridge Posted On: 8/15/2020, By: MTBen Info: Very fun ridge, not too exposed. Very smokey today |
|
8/9/2020 Route: East Ridge Posted On: 8/9/2020, By: tcphoto87 Info: Couldn't have asked for a better day aside from the early AM haze. Assuming there's a wildfire nearby, but by noon or so it had mostly all cleared up. Completely dry, super easy class 3 ridge and most if not all of the class 3 bits are pretty easily avoided if you want to. Took me a minute to locate where to start heading up but wasn't too hard to find. There was a bit more exposure on the summit ridge than I thought there would be. I did Father Dyer/Crystal/Peak 10 combo (skipping Helen and adding peak 10) and made for a super fun day. Total it was 10.75 miles and took me under 7.5 hours including all the stops on each summit and relaxing by the lake for awhile. According to my tracker on my watch the summit of Father Dyer from the parking lot/trailhead was 3.7 miles in about 2 hours 20 minutes. |
