Paying a High Price for Mount Price: A 14 hour Winter Adventure

I've had my eye on Mount Price since beginning this quest for summits. It's mostly forested Southern slopes stretch 4000' vertical feet above the Middle Fork Snoqualmie River, lending the illusion of greater prominence. While dwarfed by neighboring Big Snow Mountain, Mount Price stands on it's own when viewed from many other peaks in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. A later start time made this peak seem like a more reasonable winter summit trip other options that were on the table. I have read reports of 4-6 hour ascent times with moderate to heavy snow cover but we found having dogs in tow added nearly 2 hours to that estimate.

Most of the snow above 3000' was 2-4 feet of compressed base with a few inches of powder, of course with the occasional sections of icy crust and deep powder. We used microspikes for the top 2/3 of Dingford Creek Trail and snowshoes from the Dingford Creek crossing to the summit, then crampons on a quickly-firming surface during our descent. A few inches less snow would have made the crossing of 2 small fields of large talus too hazardous to cross, especially with dogs.


We left the Dingford Creek Trailhead at 8:30. A few other vehicles were in the lot but their drivers must have been busy on the Middle Fork, as we saw only our own tracks in the snow all day. Snow began on the trail before the rock slab waterfall, and was fairly consistent from the Hester Lake junction on. We considered an attempt at the NW route but with only an few inches of snow at Goat Creek, the longer route past the lakes was far more appealing.


Dingford Creek was low enough to walk across near the trail, but we did use a log about 30 feet upstream on the return. Navigating the snowy route with a half dozen creek crossings took some effort but within 4 hours of leaving the truck we were standing at the shore of Hester Lake with our destination in view behind thin clouds.

Sunshine on Stormy Mountain 12-21-2013

I was on the road with the dogs by 4 a.m. for the long drive from Seattle to the Entiat, looking for some sunshine and hoping to complete a hike we started about a month ago. Highway 2 over Stevens Pass had areas of ice and snow so we took the slightly longer route over Snoqualmie and Blewitt, lending an early perspective on the crappy weather on it's way from the coast. The Entiat River Road was slightly icy above 1500' which had me questioning the drive-ability of the forest roads to come. When we arrived at FS-5301 I was optimistic about what looked like an inch or two of powder covering the gravel road, but tires were spinning within the first twenty feet. I parked at the junction after some struggling and began booting up the road, which turned out to be covered in an inch of solid ice disguised under 1/2" of fresh snow. Microspikes were essential from the get go.

Stormy Mountain and Devil's Backbone quickly came into view as we rounded a corner into the sunshine. About 2 miles up I came upon a memorial to Thomas F. Beebe, who led the recovery efforts after a wildfire devastated the forest around Perry Creek in the 1970's. From there I could see several ridges leading to the summit. We left the road a mile or so later and began ascending a partially forested ridge. We crossed several overgrown roads as well as one clear road that did not appear on google maps.

Mount Washington (Olympic National Forest) 12-7-2013

On Saturday I had some afternoon plans in Shelton, so Colin and I decided to hit up the Olympics for some early morning peak-bagging. Thanks to some recent beta from a few NW Hikers Colin and I were able to make a confident attempt at Mount Washington. We drove through Hoodsport around 6:30 as the morning light crept in. After turning left on road 2419 a small coyote(or possibly a fox?) leaped onto the road and began running up it as if we were in hot pursuit. We followed behind in amusement as it sprinted up the road with no apparent intention to head for the woods on either side. After a minute or so we backed off to give the road-running coyote a chance to leave the road, but when we continued on a few minutes later we quickly caught up as it caught it's breath and then finally decided to retreat into the brush. I misread the trail's location just north of the junction for road 014 to the Mount Ellinor Trailhead. Instead we took the turn, realizing the mistake as we stopped to admire the pre-dawn light just before arriving at the trailhead.




Conditions:
The last 2 miles of forest road had an inch of compact snow and ice in the ruts. Microspikes were useful from the get go, there were several thick cascades of ice covering the trail before the basin. The trail itself was pretty overgrown but well traveled and easy to read. We mostly followed someone's path where it wasn't covered in drifting snow, opting for the frozen creek bed over the snowy bushwhack for some of the section just above the basin. Near the top was less than 6" of snow, except for a few small fields which were several feet deep. We found very little firm snow above 4000 feet. If it were much deeper some movement seemed very possible. Most of the summit block was dry, with a light dusting on the West face. Loose snow above exposure blocked the bootpath ~60 feet below the summit. The dog stopped there, but we managed to scramble up the exposed West face.

2013-11-29 Bearscout Peak

Colin and I tried to make the best of the weather the day after Thanksgiving by climbing a few obscure I-90 peaks. We parked less than a mile below the gate at the Hansen Creek Trailhead and set off up the snowy road before 7 a.m. There was a single truck at the borrow pit when we passed by. About a foot of snow was mostly firm on the road, and very thin or non-existent under canopy besides a few places above 4500 feet.



On top of the ridge we followed the remnants of the old Mount Gardner Trail along the watershed boundary. Hopping on and off several roads brought us to Scout Patrol Peak, which we quickly left for Bearscout Peak. Visibility was under 50 feet most of the day, and never more than 200 feet. On our return the snow was noticeably softer but mostly downhill so we never used the snowshoes that we carried all day. Back at the gate we found dozens of cars worth of people harvesting Christmas trees, and then got caught in a very unexpected traffic jam on Tinkham Road.




10.5 miles round trip 3900' elevation gain


View 2013-11-29 Bearscout in a larger map

Rock Mountain (Stevens Pass) 11-23-2013

We left Renton at 4:30 a.m. and left the truck under the power lines East of the Rock Mountain Trailhead at 7. We scrambled quickly up to the trail and started up the endless switchbacks. As we climbed, a red glow moved into the foggy valley to the East and Icicle Ridge slowly rose from behind the Chiwaukum Mountains. Snow began to appear on the trail by 3500 feet. We carefully worked through few short sections of exposed switchbacks that were covered in thick ice before.



Where snow covered the trail it was fairly well packed, but as we gained elevation and the untouched areas remained soft powder it became increasingly clear that we should have brought snowshoes. We followed the sole pair of boot tracks on the mostly packed trail until they turned around, and continued on the trail for a few hundred feet more until reaching an exposed rocky peak. We crossed below the cliffs and then climbed to the top of the ridge where the false summit of Rock Mountain first came into view.

Dog Mountain (Lennox Creek/North Fork Snoqualmie) 11-20-2013

I got an early start to make the most of the sunshine that was forecast for Wednesday. We were delayed for about 10 minutes on the long drive down the North Fork County Road by a truck that was being loaded with recently logged timber. Fresh asphalt now continues a few hundred feet past the "Spur 10" gate, it looks like new homes may be soon to come. Lights from more logging could be seen a few thousand feet up on the West end of Phelps Ridge.

We hit the trail at 7 a.m. with just enough light to leave the headlamp in the bag. Bits of snow appeared on the roadside before the barrier, less than 1/4 mile past the Bare Mountain Trailhead. The road/trail beyond the barrier was only slightly overgrown, but would have been much worse before fall. A few inches covered the ground by the time we reached the two consecutive bridges about a mile in. Shortly after that was a fork in the road, where we continued on the obvious trail to the right. Bare Mountain and the West ridge of Dog Mountain faded in and out of view along the way. The trail began at the roads end another 1/4 mile later.