Mount Tenneriffe 1.14.04

With one of the dogs nursing a reinjured knee and not wanting to be unfair and bring his little brother, I snuck out of the house. I had to laugh at having to be so stealthy, but the dogs would have gone nuts if they even sensed that I was going with out them. I decided that Mt Teneriffe would be today's objective. I used the logging road at the end of Mt. Si Rd. The area seems to have received quite a bit of snow in last week's snowstorm. It seems like the cold was trapped near the ground leaving a inversion of snow. As I climbed the snow grew more and more sparse. I donned snowshoes near the 3000ft level. Despite leaving with a purposeful drizzle the day warmed with some filtered sunlight and grew quite warm. The road has a well worn snowshoe track that I followed to the saddle that overlooks Ranchor Lake at the 4100ft level. I stopped to eat lunch and enjoyed the views. I then followed the snowshoe track that continues to Teneriffe's summit. After about climbing 100ft of elevation on the easy to follow trail my will left me. I didn't really want to finish in the dark and I was running low on time due to my somewhat slow pace on the climb. I decided that since I had already climbed Teneriffe on two previous trips there wasn't really enough to motivate me further. I was a little crest fallen that I had not achieved today's goal, but that melted quickly as I enjoyed the balmy weather and nice views on the way down.