Paperboy Peak 4.22.07

Paperboy Peak ranks a lowly 95th on the HC/100 and thus needed to be climbed. Paperboy is located in the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie drainage nearly due North of the imposing Bessemer Mt. I parked at the end of the Taylor River Road amongst the hoards of people. I almost couldn't find a place to park. I wasn't in the least bothered because I knew it was unlikely I would see anyone the rest of the day. As I started out it was raining lightly, not a good sign because I knew my approach is very brushy. Thankfully the rain abated and wasn't seen for the rest of the day. I turned onto the Quartz Creek Road with a little bit of dread. The Quartz Creek Road has it's defenses alot of brush and 3 sketchy feeder creek crossings. I wasn't looking forward to having to make these three crossings going in and coming out. As it turns out they weren't nearly as bad as I remembered. The first is just past the turnoff for the Sunday Creek Road and I chose the middle of three logs spanning the 20ft drop to the creek. The log was well worn so it thankfully wasn't slippery it did have plenty of annoying rebar to circumnavigate. I was pleased the dogs crossed without hesitation. The next crossing I found a little more arduous because the logs were much more slippery. The last crossing involves using a hand line to span a waterway that spills over some very smooth rock. I was much thankful to make this crossing without a fall. I continued on with the road becoming ever increasingly brushy. Thankully none to the brush had leaved out yet making it a little less tedious. At around 2900ft the road splits and I decided to bag the road walk any further. I left the road climbing mostly straight up without too much resistance. Suprisingly the snow only had been patchy to this point I had expected much more snow. My goal was to do a rising traverse to the NW to access until I could access Paperboy's East Ridge. There are some beautiful basins that must be crossed along the way. It was quite a sight looking back at my tracks going through these basins. I could have made the East Ridge but the West Ridge looked more promising. I pushed on upwards until I crested the West Ridge at 4800ft. I was very thankful to see open and easy slopes for the final push to the summit. I had hoped to continue on NW to reach Boomerang Mt.(Pt. 5185) however I had started later than what I had hoped and it also took me longer than anticipated to reach Paperboy. I knew I only had enough time to make it pack just before dark as it was. There was no way I would even try to make any of the crossings in the dark. I dropped very quickly back to the road and had no problems with each of the crossings and before I knew it I was back to the car.








Aprox 11 miles 3900ft of climb and 8:15 car to car