McDonald Mountain 3570' 2190'P

     With the rarest of rare,  having a Saturday off and having sunny warm weather in February I thought it best to get out and stretch the legs. I had to be somewhere in the evening and I worked until 3am so getting up early wouldn't be in the cards. I had been up high on the McDonald Ridge once before and had to turn back because I had forgotten my headlamp. On that trip I did 3 miles in the dark making for some eerie walking. On that trip I had used the Southern access road so of course for this trip I wanted to use the Northern route. I found a nice spot to park next to the giant blue gate, there was one car already parked bolsterling my confidence that I was indeed in the correct spot. I travelled light with no pack and in my lighter boots hoping to keep a brisk pace. The initial portion of the old road is more like a trail with areas that are washed out and some fresh fallen timber from the recent ice storm. Although I was quite surprised that there wasn't far more damage. After about a mile the road is much better and I picked up the pace. The road reaches an open clear cut that wasn't sheltered from the stout East winds. Just before I reached the clearcut I was wary of keeping vigil for falling branches or trees. Thankfully I wasn't treated to either. Once reaching the clearcut my attention turned from watching for trees falling to trying to keep myself from being blown over by the wind. I gave some thought to turning around since I wasn't dressed for the conditions. I could see a half mile away the road rejoined the forest giving me a reprieve from the wind. Once I was sheltered from the wind the weather was warm and very pleasant. I was lost in my thoughts when I came to a junction and to my surprise I was already at the spur that takes you to the radio towers. Even though I had already been there I went again thinking that would be as far I had time to go. Much to my surprise it only had taken me 90 minutes to go  the                                                                                                          5miles.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Since I still had some time I pressed on. I stayed on the road as it descended some elevation before reclaiming it. I reached the end of the road and I had remembered that the thick growth of small fir trees is short lived so I bulled through the thick growth to access the more mature trees on the other side. On my previous trip I had stayed more directly on the ridge line and found annoying travel in the clearcut. This time I stayed climber's right and found much easier travel. Once regaining another road the pace again quickened. I followed this for some time before reaching another dead end and headed climber's left to reach another road which I again followed for some time. I reached a small saddle between two higher points and headed for the Southern one first. I left the road and headed steeply up. The snow was very icy and not having my Winter boots made for some tense travel. I easily reached the summit and then headed North and found easier travel and less ice on the Western side of the ridge. Instead of retracing my route I headed to the Northern point just for fun. I then headed back to my ascent route and put in my biggest gear for the long haul out. I was pleased to cover the 12+ miles roundtrip in around 4 hours. despite the route never being steep I still racked up over 3500' of gain as well. It was quite a site to see the multitude of fires burning in the valley below. I am quite sure I could see more than 200 fires going burning the remnants of the ice storm. I could also see that the South sound was socked in with an inversion trapping all the pollutants near the surface. The strong Eastern winds were blowing all that smoke directly towards an area that clearly didn't need any more pollutants. I would expect that many with breathing issues are feeling the effects of this.

Squak Mt. The Long Way Route 1.18.12

  With the monumental dump of snow mixed with the generous lowland snow by options were very limited. I had expected more snow but there was still enough to provide challenging driving conditions around my house. I decided a nice walk from my house to Squak Mt South Access Road and on to the summit would be a fun trip.  The snow was waning as I started out. The roads were compact snow and ice. I made great time the 2.5 miles to the Access Road. There was very little traffic and the people I did see were driving at speeds suitable for the conditions. I was a bit unnerved around a steeper portion of my approach. Both coming and going I was very aware of what traffic was doing. I certainly didn't want to get in the way of car sliding out of control on the hill.

   Once I started on the road there were tracks from earlier in the day. I found it easier to find my own way in the shallow snow instead of trying to match stride lengths of the tracks. The weather changed to a light rain and I was wary of freezing rain. There were a few trees freshly down from the added weight of the snow. The snow progressively got deeper as I reached the end of the bootprints. I broke trail for the remainder of the way to the summit. There was about 16" of snow from the previous week's activity. I didn't linger long and I pushed the pace down the road. The snow was great for a speedy decent. The balance of the way home went very quickly. I did have to navigate more traffic on the way out then on the way in. I was pleased that my new La Sportiva Gore-Tex Boots kept my feet warm and more importantly dry. 10 miles in wet conditions was a good test.

Approx 10 miles 2100' of climb 3:45 car to  car

Snowy Cougar Mt. 1.16.12

   I was really looking forward to having the kids off today from school. I was hopeful another outing with them out in the hills. With the suddenly snowy weather only stoking my desire to get them out, my oldest decided that she wanted to climb Cougar Mt. I have very fond memories of a previous trip when she was able to summit on her own power. My fondest memory was when we came across a sign for Longview Peak and I wasn't able to dissuade her from bagging her second peak of the day. I was hopeful the roads were passable and thankfully they were easily navigated. After our customary stop for Gatorade and snacks we were  off for the short drive to the trailhead just off of SR 900. The weather was chilly and the snow had stopped. There was about an inch covering the trail making for some slick footing. I chuckled to myself as the 4 year old took the lead and set a stiff pace. It sure is a joy to watch those little legs "power up the steeps". As is customary the little one lost interest and I had to resort to my ruse of promising hot chocolate if the summit is realized. In this case I was sure that the summit would be too much so my hope was just some time well spent with my girls. After a mile the little one decided that she had enough and we had a family meeting to decide to what course of action to take. The oldest was dead set on continuing because she wanted to add another entry to her Peakbagger summit page. In the end I felt like it was probably best to head back. The kids each fell once and they were quick to recover. I was pure joy to be out with my girls and to see there smiling faces all bundled up to ward off the chill.

Approx 2 miles 400' of climb 60 minutes car to car

Arrowhead Mt. 6030' 571'P 1.12.12

I don't know if I was more surprised to put a group of 5 together mid week to do a Winter Climb or that I could find 4 other people who haven't already done Arrowhead. I have saved this one for a day with clear conditions to make the most of the sweet views. While the weather wasn't as clear as I had hoped the cloud deck was high enough to allow views of area peaks mantled in snow. I had hoped to do Arrowhead by the non traditional West Ridge Route but the group was more interested in the favored East Ridge Route. We met at the Sultan P and R at the 7am. I had Fletcher and Rob sign on for another outing but we also were able to add Craig(Redwic) and Sergio. We had clear sailing on Hy 2 since the road were bare and dry. I was very thankful for the detailed route description on where to park, roughly 7.5 miles East of Stevens Pass on a fairly large turnout on the North side of the US2. The weather was very crisp but not overly cold as suited up. I was very careful to leash the dog for both the crossing of the road as well as the 1.5 mile walk East on the train tracks.

   The going was easy on the tracks and shortly a train went by as I held the leash with a death grip. We soon saw a snowshoe trench leaving the tracks and we investigated. I felt like we still should walk further East but having a solid trench to follow was too good of option to pass up.  The trench was very icy so a few of us went ahead and added traction devices, I was very envious of the micro spikes which were much better than the crampons I was forced to use. After a few hundred feet of climb the path started heading further East than I wanted to I took off more Westerly. The snow was fairly consolidated and the grade was much easier than what I was expecting. After leading for a short ways I let everyone pass me. Sergio hadn't done a snowshoe hike before and I was more concerned for his well being than the others. I was happy to see that we were making very good time and with getting an early start I was very hopeful for success. Around 4400' the going became much steeper and with this the snow was softer. The lighter guys leading didn't have much post holing problems but Sergio in front of me had much difficulty. We both are considerably heavier than the rest of the group. Thankfully I didn't have nearly as much issue as Sergio. I give him a ton of credit for maintaining a positive demeanor in a tough situation for someone new to snowshoeing.

Around 5100' we finally broke out onto the ridge and I was very happy to find a snowshoe trench as easy to walk on as a city sidewalk. Being only 900' below the summit with such perfect conditions we quickly made the summit. The wind was a bit nippy on top so I descended a few feet while everyone had summit beers and lunch.  I returned to take some group pictures and didn't waste much time to descend again. I am sure that my face with grape colored icicles hanging off my goatee was quite the site. I wasn't quite paying enough attention to the point where we had reached the ridge and we descended on the nice trench past it. I was fine with mixing up the descent so Craig and I descended the trench while the others backtracked to our ascent route. After a few more hundred feet of descent Craig and I feared the route would follow the complete East ridge back to the train tracks. Not wanting to go so far out of our way we did a descending traverse to the West to reach our ascent route. We were surprised not to see any sign of bootprints descending so we decided to wait hoping that the rest of the group would soon catch up. After some time we decided that they may have descended via another route. Since the going is relatively easy we decided to continue with our descent. The rest of the way to the train tracks went very quickly and was quite enjoyable. Once reaching the train tracks I put my head down and pounded out the rest of the mileage back to the car. Not too long after reaching the car everyone else made it out.

   Some times group dynamics can be a problem on these types of trips but I was very thankful that everyone related well with each other and were able to make decisions as a group. It was very fulfilling to be able to cross another on off the Back Court 100 especially in the dead of Winter

Approx 6 miles 3400' of climb 6:00 Car to car