Kaleetan Peak - South Route - 08.13.10

4000'+ elevation gain
12 miles RT
Left car: 8:15 am
Summit: 12:15 pm
Back at car: 4:15 pm
8 hours car to car

Adam and I opted to do something. He wanted something "mellow" as his leg was bothering him from playing soccer. I wanted exercise. We decided on Kaleetan Peak as it seemed fairly mellow. The trip had similar stats to my hike of Alta Peak last year which I completed in five hours. This trip, we were bringing helmets, but that was about it for extra weight. The pack really feels light on a day trip like this.

We left Seattle around 7am and were hiking a little after 8am. We made great time on the trail and got to Melakwa Lake in good time. (I wasn't paying attention, but probably in a little over an hour and a half.) We took a break at the lake where we were surprisingly not bothered by mosquitoes. Then we located the trail to gain the ridge. We opted for gaining the ridge at the outlet of the lake as it is easier, and we were looking for a mellow outing. There are a few other options near the inlet of the lake, but they involve more scrambling.

The trail goes up through forest for while and meanders around some cliffs before getting near Point 5700, sometimes called the false summit. Just below there, the slopes become a bit more open and there is a little bit of talus to cross and then another band of trees before climbing open talus slopes to the top. Then the trail dropped back down on the west side of the ridge through some horrible muddy slopes where the veggie belays were mandatory. Then the way traversed a bit before going up through talus to gain the ridge once again. We tried to take a brief break, but the bugs were bothering us and we continued on.

The path started getting steeper and less trail like, so we put our helmets on. I was moving a bit faster than Adam and near the gully to the summit he declared he would not continue as his leg was bothering him too much. I continued up the scramble which was very easy and I liken it to the haystack on Mt. Si. Although it has been a while since I've been on Mount Si, I remember the Mt. Si gully to be more loose and steeper. I reached the top and was greeted by another hiker we saw ahead of us. He was kind enough to let me summit before heading down the gully. The views from the summit were great. I could see Mount Garfield, but could not see Anne and Sabrina who were supposed to be on the peak. (It is seven miles away.)

I also enjoyed the "peak finder" on the summit which was dated from 1935. I didn't need it (do I really need to be told the name of Mount Rainier?) But it was an interesting artifact. There were some flying ants on the summit which made me not want to stick around too long as they had a bad habit of landing on me, including one getting inside my sunglasses. I made a brief attempt to head to the west end of the summit area, but thought better of it being up there alone. I grabbed my pack and headed back down to Adam, where we continued further a bit so I could eat a lunch.

We scrambled back down the talus and had a freak incident of rockfall come from high on the ridge. It was headed right for Adam. Unfortunately, he slipped and had difficulty moving fast from the final piece. He remained untouched, but aggravated his leg injury in the process. This isn't an area where there are goats, and we didn't see anything moving about, so we scratched this up to just natural rock fall. After that, the rest of the trip down to the lake was uneventful.

By the time we arrived back at the lake we were out of water. (I drank three liters and the temp is Seattle reached 84°F.) We decided to take a dip as we didn't have a means of filtering the water except for Iodine, and that would take a half hour and we'd be very close to the car. The brief swim was refreshing and we both soaked our headgear in the lake before continuing down hill. After about an hour the cooling effects wore off and we'd attempt to soak our hats in any stream we passed. Even that was no longer doing the trick and we just gutted it out to the car where we had water waiting. I had a ferocious headache like someone was stabbing me in the eye for the last twenty minutes of the hike. We got to the car and guzzled water.

This was a fun if hot outing. Definitely a possibility to do alone and just the right amount of difficulty for the trip I wanted. (A little more than what Adam was up for though.) The heat really took a toll, and it made me think I do not want to be out for the rest of the weekend without a reliable water source nearby. Had I anticipated the heat would affect me so much, I would have carried four liters with me instead of three.

My pics are here.

Sliver Peak - 06.13.10

After reading trip reports from earlier in the week touting the remaining snow on Silver Peak, I wanted to give it a try. Due to commitments, I had a late start, and also wanted to be back home before dinner, which is why I decided on this destination. I figured I could be house-to-house in five hours if all went well.

It turns out the ski guide book wasn't a great choice for finding the trail head. It leads you to the winter trail head which is near the Hyak ski area and not the summer trail head at Windy Pass. Once near Hyak I drove around a bit trying to find the road which I did finally locate through the private development to the right of Hyak. This was a poorly maintained road that crossed the ski slope before passing by a private residence on the other side. It then joined the main road which I followed around Mount Catherine before reaching the point where everyone was parked due to snow on the road. (This is actually a continuation of the road Hyak is on.) I could have driven a little further, but I could not tell if there was parking available, so I parked pretty far down the road. Apparently, many others had the same idea I did.

I got out and geared up. Once I walked past all the (20) cars, I walked through the first snow and stopped at the continuous snow on the other side of a dry patch on the road. From there I started skinning following the skin track through the clear cut. Some areas where real thin, but there was pretty decent coverage. It of course got thicker as I got higher. Clouds were rolling in and out keeping the temps manageable as well. The route got steeper as it headed into the lower basin, and views of the Snoqualmie Peaks began to show from the north. The snow was soft, and a little weak on some of the steeper traverses making me slow down a bit.

I arrived at the ridge an hour after leaving the car. There were a bunch of people up there, many doing laps on the Annette Lake side of the ridge. I took my skis off and stood a bit before attempting to head up the ridge to the summit. I hopped over the ridge and scrambled some talus before getting back onto the ridge proper. I was no more than 20 meters from where I had gained the ridge on skis. Due to the time and my desire to be back before dinner, I decided not to make a summit bid. I was also feeling quite clumsy scrambling in my ski boots. If I was to try again in the upcoming week, I'd bring some trail runners for the summit scramble. Clouds also appeared to be rolling in from the west, so I didn't want to dawdle too much.

I went back to my skis and ate some snacks before setting up to head down. Not having been there before I discussed descent options with a guy before making my decision. The drop in point was fairly steep and so I hit that and made a bunch of turns down to the upper basin which I attempted to cross and head over a rise. I didn't carry enough speed, and had to side step up before descending the other side. Due to me breaking one of the rules of backcountry skiing to never descend what you haven't come up, I was slow coming down. I had to pick my way through some steep terrain with trees that I was concerned would cliff out. I eventually made my way to the drainage that most people were using for descent and followed other's tracks down from there. There were a few points where I had to do a few side steps to gain ground. Especially right before reaching the clear cut and the skin track in.

Once back out in the clear cut it was controlled skiing through the trees to avoid bare spots. At one point I wasn't quick enough to make a decision and had each ski go on the opposite sides of a small tree which resulted in me crashing. I skied out from that point making sure I could see where I wanted to go well in advance. I returned to the point where I had put my skis on in the morning and walked back to the car.

Overall, this was a super enjoyable and easily accessible ski outing for this time of year. I wish I had more time and I would have made an attempt on the summit. Or at least brought different shoes, so that attempt would have been quicker. Due to the nature of this trip, it could easily be done after work sans summit for a less than two hour car to car trip. Although it is staying light until after 9pm right now, so it wouldn't hurt to do a summit, or a second lap. The skiing was pretty good and I had a fun day.

My pics are here.

Snoqualmie Skiing - 01.28.09

Steve called at 8:30 this morning and said he wasn't working. He wanted to know if I wanted to go ski. I told him to pick me up in an hour.

Since I wanted to be back in town at 4pm, and since avy conditions weren't great, we decided to poach some lines at Snoqualmie West, which was not opening until 4pm for night skiing.

We skinned up from the far west parking lot through the trees. There was about 7-8" of fresh snow on top of the previous crust. Steve was able release a few small slabs just above the water towers. We skinned to the top of the Pacific Crest Chair and transitioned for a run. West of the chair was ungroomed, while everything east of the chair had been groomed. We made a run down the lift and through Julie's on surprisingly good soft powder. At our bottom transition, a ski patroller came by on a snow mobile and told us to watch out for the groomers, and to have fun. For the second run, we decided we would hit the 360° bowl for more powder. However, conditions had changed and lighting was so flat we were having difficulty reading the slopes. The snow wasn't as good as the previous run. Most likely due to wind and periodic sun. So we skinned up one more time and hit the groomers all the way down to the lot.

The first run was best, and they deteriorated from there. Snow pack is horrible right now, and I would imagine the pass will get closed once or twice in the next few days due to avalanches.

We drove back and were in Seattle before 3pm.

Some pics are here.