Bearhead Mountain (Attempt) 3-15-2014

This was my and Colin's first outing with the Mountaineers. When we saw a new summit listed as the destination for a conditioner we jumped at the opportunity to avoid a weekend trip to Mount Si. With no recent beta I set my expectations low as our convoy climbed as close to the trailhead as the snow would allow. We made it to about 3600' and after a quick weigh in we were breaking trail under rolling snow clouds. The overcast layer slowly rose through the day and provided several sun breaks, as well as a few brief flurries.

Bearhead and Pitcher Mountains each came into view during the roadwalk. We reached the trailhead in just over an hour. Twin Lake was hardly noticeable under snow when we cruised past it. Beyond the lake snowshoeing was a pain on the steep traverse and the trail became faint. Beyond that the slopes grew steeper as we climbed higher, some of us even debated switching to crampons. Around 5500' we reached a clearing with a nice little bench just in time for a short break. Beyond Cayada Mountain Tolmie, Howard and Florence were capped in snow.


A short alpine bushwhack later and we were on mellow slopes looking at The Cascades to the north and the summit above us. Considerable avalanche danger made the simplest approach more dangerous than necessary so we crossed mellow open slopes to the base of a tiny north ridge and climbed up to evaluate a summit approach from the east. The risk was deemed to high so we hunkered down for lunch. As we ate I noticed Lake Washington and the skyscrapers in Seattle in the distance.


On our descent the group consensus favored avoiding the steep traverse so we continued straight down to Coplay Lake, navigating around a small cliff band along the way. We log hopped around the north side of the lake and followed the spur road back to our tracks. It would have been nice to have reached the summit, but thanks to the added distance and elevation on the road we did meet the conditioner credit.


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