Ryan and I got our usual late start, we hit the Mason Lake trailhead at 11:30. The weather was unseasonably warm and couldn't have been more ideal. The Mason Lake trail is fairly steep in places and you need some route finding skills to find your way through the rockslide. We passed 3 guys who were overnighting at Mason Lake. The lake had very little ice on it, amazing for this late in the season. We sunned ourselves for 15 minutes and then hit the Mt. Defiance trail which we stayed on until the long traverse over I-90. There is a good climber's trail that summits in 400ft. The views are 360 degrees, and since there wasn't a cloud in the sky you could see many of the major area peaks. There was no wind on top and the temp. was near 70 in the sun. With daylight ending sooner and sooner we hastily retreated to the car. What a simply amazing day for the end of Nov. Only small patches of snow on the backside of Defiance.
Total climb 3600ft 1:45 to Mason Lake 1:00 to summit 1:35 to car
Tuesday, November 26, 2002
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