Iron Peak 5.25.04

After last week's truck breakdown in Easton, I coerced a ride back to fix it. Much to my dismay I noticed halfway up Snoqualmie Pass that I had brought the wrong key chain and I didn't have the keys to the truck. I quickly ( not happily I might add ) turned around and headed home. Like most things in life that don't go your way, it ended up being a blessing. It was nice spending some extra time with my parents it was after all my mother's birthday! I managed to get the truck up and running with a minimal amount of swearing. I said my goodbyes and was on to the next goal for the day. I wanted a summit of Iron Peak via trail #1399. The North Fork Teanaway road is in great shape and parking at the trail head was no problem. The trail is not very steep as it meanders it's way to the pass between Iron Peak and Pt. 6779 which I have seen referred to as both Teanaway Pk and also Genes Peak. There was enough snow on the trail to make it easier to just climb straight up instead of trying to follow the trail. The grade in this area is not steep and it is open and attractive for cross country travel. I left the trail aroung 5600ft and headed SE doing a rising traverse until I reached the ridge line at around 6100ft and found a distinct climber's trail to goes on to the true summit at 6510ft. I followed this trail until 6300ft where I reached a small false summit with some great views of the surrounding peaks. The trail continued on, but with the ridge very heavily corniced I was a bit concerned for the well being of my dogs. I could have easily circumvented this problem, but I wasn't sure I would be able to keep the dogs from walking near these cornices. I decided to return by heading due north directly to the pass and then heading straight down cutting all the swichbacks. The snow was consistent and deep enough to make some great time. The weather was a bit windy but was perfect climbing weather, some filtered sun but not too warm. With a 3 hour car to car time it gave me some extra time to get home and get some much needed relaxation.