Maloney Ridge Road 3.30.10

After a most disturbing week of work, I needed to get out and think some things through. With all the new snow and the high avy dangers climbing anything seemed out of the question. I desperatly wanted to stretch my legs however so I decided to see all this new snow first hand. As I made my way up US 2 I couldn't believe that there was snow just outside of Index. I made my way up the Foss River Road and then turned on the road that leads to Maloney Lookout. I was able to drive to around 2400' before I decided that the snow was deep enough to warrant stopping. I packed up and booted my way up the snowy road. The snow depth increased quickly and I switched to snowshoes. The weather went from heavy snow to sunshine to heavy snow back to sunshine. After reaching the junction I stayed on the road leading to Evans Lake. The snow here was easily more than 2' which made the beagle have to bunny hop from one of my steps to the next. I had to laugh looking back and seeing that my prints were as deep as he is tall. I half intended on going to Maloney Lakes or even the little bump to the NE of the upper lake. After pushing the beagle a little further I realized that would be too much for the little guy. Thankfully I was able to sort out my thoughts and made it home to spend some extra time with the family.




Approx 5 miles 800' of climb

Miller River Road 3.23.10

With the nice weather predicted for today I was excited to get out and start subtracting some peaks off my list. I went to Preston to pick up Bruce only to realize that he PM'd that he wouldn't be able to make it. I intended on a pretty stout off trail day and it lessened my enthusiasm to being solo. I pressed on making good time to my parking spot at the start of the West Miller River Road despite nearly falling asleep. After a 10 minute power nap I was recharged and ready to go. I have a strong dislike for the WMRR because of the rough slippery nature of it. I knew I wasn't going to be spending too much time on it so that lessened my angst. The plans was to leave the road at around 1600' just after the fresh rockslide . On the map it is just after where the the creek used to flow. I gave some thought of emulating the Quartz Mt report I had read recently and using the gully itself. I had read two reports of using the ridge and both made it sound steep but uneventful. I found the initial portion steep but mostly open. Upon reaching some mossy slabs I wove my way through them and began to see this efficient route was much more than expected. I pushed on for a short ways before I started to feel like a solo trip was not a wise choice. I traversed back towards the gully and was able to catch a glimpse higher up and it seems like it would work. I gave some thought of dropping into the gully but it was nearly 100' below me. I decided that the day would be better spent doing some chores at home. As I descended it became clear to me that I had made a wise choice. The moss on the steep slopes is not well mated with the slabs making for some unnerving descending. Thankfully I made it back to the road and stopped long enough to soak up some sun and eat my lunch. After making it back to the car I decided to see how far I could drive up the Miller River Road and surprising to me I could drive all the way to the end.




Approx 2 miles 800' of climb

Teanaway Ridge 3.16.10

I had been monitoring both the weather and avy conditions all week trying to get a trip that would go. Thankfully the avy conditions lessened enough to give me lots of options. After enjoying a balmy 66 degree day on Monday I could feel the winds of change. The forecast looked like the rain and wind would hold out until the afternoon giving me some hope. After the wind kicked up in the evening I was sure that the rain would arrive early. Yet when I awoke it was warm calm and dry. I picked up Bruce in Preston and had a debate on where to go. I had hoped to try for Cleveland but I was unsure if the weather would hold out long enough for that. The clincher was when Bruce asked me about my other attempts for Cleveland and why I hadn't been successful. My reply was it was that it pouring out. To that his reply was maybe we shouldn't do that. So East it was. I had been looking over the quads and noticed that I hadn't done Teanaway Ridge 4943' so there it was. The weather was actually cold when we reached the Iron Creek/Hovey Creek junction off of HY 97. Shortly after the sun peeked over the trees it warmed considerably and remained dry and windless for the entire day. We booted up the Hovey creek road passing one junction and then reached a second one that matched my map. Heading up the road started going the wrong direction so I led us up through the freshly logged area for 300' of climb until I saw another road beneath us. Thinking this surely must be the right road we gave up some hard earned elevation to reach the road. I then decided that that didn't look right either. We started off cross country for a short way before I decided thigh deep snow in a recent logged area didn't suit me. Becoming frustrated I led us back to the Hovey Creek Road for plan B. We walked the road until we reached a junction where the main line had been bermed to keep motorized traffic from continuing. The spur heading to our right looked interesting because it didn't appear on my map. We followed this to it's end. The area above us was open and mostly snow free. It was somewhat steep and the footing was soft and loose but it afforded quick elevation gain. We quickly reached the ridgeline just West of 4002'. We climbed a short steep snow slope to reach a well defined ridgeline which we followed towards the day's goal. After pushing through a short area of brush we reached some open slopes for the last 300' to the summit. While 4943' is a nice seat for regional views the tree cover prevents easy viewing. I managed to contort myself to catch some clear views through the branches of the trees. We had a quick lunch and didn't waste much time making it back to the car in less than 90 minutes. After being pounded by wind and rain on the ride home I was thankful to take Bruce's advice and head East. We surely would have had a miserable time West of the crest..






Approx 7 miles 2300' of climb with detours 5:15 car to car

Tusk O' Granite Aka West Granite 3.9.10

I had hoped to start this week with knocking off peaks off the Home/Back Court 100 but I had only a half day and didn't think I could fit one in. I needed something close which is becoming hard to find one that I haven't done yet. I decided that West Granite should fit in my time frame. West Granite lacks less than 100' of prominence to be included into the Home Court 100 so it is a worthy objective. I had read of a few routes but I chose the most direct line hoping to speed things along. I parked at the Pratt Lake Trailhead with only one other car in the lot. There was a light snow in the trees from the previous day but nothing substantial. The weather was a little brisk but much nicer than expected. I suited up and was off. I intended on using the trail until the first major creek crossing after the junction with the Granite Mt. Trail. I crossed the creek and made my way up a couple of switchbacks and on the last one I headed off trail. I was able to follow a fairly worn boot track under the snow cover and the both the grade and the brush were tolerable. Around 3600' the grade steepened and the brush became very annoying. The ground had a light cover of snow with the ground being very firm underneath. Trying to get a good push to bull my way through some of the thicker brush was very time consuming and frustrating. I kept getting my pack hung up and would have to untangle myself frequently. I decided on the way up that there was no way I was going to descend via this route. Finally at 4000' I hit solid snow. I switched to snowshoes but I think either booting it or crampons would have worked. Now on snow the elevation started ticking away at a much faster pace. I had good legs so I stayed on the ridgeline instead of traversing towards the nice basin to my East as I had planned. Soon I crested Red 2 and dropped 100' to the saddle. From Red 2 the summit of West Granite looked quite far away. From the saddle I pushed up the steeper slopes and very quickly I was on the summit. Now it was time to figure out how I was going to get down. I had thought of heading East and Making for Granite Mountain proper but since I had already been there many times it didn't hold any attraction. I thought of traversing the lovely basin below me and climb out of it and traverse to the Winter Route for Granite but that didn't seem appealing. I followed my ascent until I reached the saddle and I dropped to the West. I know that this is usually the route of choice for ascending West Granite so I felt pretty good about this choice. After dropping 200' I decided to take off the snowshoes and just plunge step my way down. As I headed West I tried to angle to the South to try to cut some distance off. I Traversed to a wonderful snow slope that had perfect snow for descending. As I nearly reached the bottom I turned back and looked at my steps through the otherwise untracked snow and that was the highlight of my day. Soon I reached the bottom of the snow slope and was in the trees. I crossed a creek and started looking for signs of the Pratt Lake Trail. Soon I spied a trench in the snow on the other side of the creek and when I looked down I was practically on the trail. Thankfully I joined the trench for the much longer than expected route out. Once I reached the junction to Talapus Lake the trail became exceedingly slippery and much care had to be taken. Even with this vigilance I managed to take a hard fall, but thankfully no damage was done. I had expected the weather to worsen as the day went along but the sun broke through and made for a nice walk to the car.





Approx 8 miles 3800' of climb 5:45 car to car

The Dungeon 3.2.10

When it comes to obscure you can't beat Peakbagger.com for ideas. While Dungeon would be well up the list of Homecourt 100 peaks it just lacking the benchmark prominence of 500'. With 400' of clean prominence it seemed a worthy objective. Dungeon can readily be seen from Snoqualmie pass . I believe this is the play where it derives it's name. I have to admit it took me a while to make the connection. While Dungeon sounds like a cool name for a peak it doesn't really make any literal sense. I believe that the it is a play on it's taller neighbor Rampart Ridge and the dungeon does tend to be below the castle's ramparts. If I had my choice I would have tried a day earlier when the forecasted weather seemed more cooperative, but alas we don't always get the best option. So with today's messy forecast I picked up Bruce in Preston and we were off. The drizzle evaportated into some sunny weather as we crested the pass. It seems every time I use the road that parallels on the North side of I-90 I have to park further back. There was very little snow on the road that was "closed" as much as I wanted to subtract some of the mindless road walking I for once obeyed. The road where there was snow was packed down by heavy snowmobile use the going was fast. Soon we reached our first junction and continued straight instead of following the main line. This road leads to the fisherman's trail that I have used to acess Lake Lillian and today would be our route of choice. After two hours we reached the dogleg in the road where the roads starts back to the South and here we continuted North. I half expected firm snow conditions but instead we had soft heavy snow so we shoed up. I led us best I could by memory of where I thought the trail went. I erred a bit and was following a feeder stream instead of the main water course coming from Lake Laura. We did a uncomfortable traverse across snow bridges to hit the crusty snow under the trees. Soon the going got icy and steep giving me much concern for our descent. We reached a small flat area and stopped to catch our breaths. I was able to see some signs that we were on route so I led us up a small sub ridge to some more steep areas. Feeling pretty sapped already I stopped and ate a quick lunch. Thankfully I was able to see a small gap to aim for that I surmised was the route to the lake. Once at the lake the views were worth the effort that we had expended so far.


Even though rationally I knew walking on the lake was safe I had a hard time venturing too far out on the ice. Once back on solid ground we caught our first glimpse of our summit. After crossing the outlet and another gap we were finally on open slopes. After about 200' of gain we hit a short nearly vertical slope that I could not make with my snowshoes on so I retreated a dropped the snowshoes and my pack. Once over this steep portion the grade slacked for a short ways until we reached a buttress that we bypassed on it's North side. Here again the pitch steepened and I found renewed legs. Once around the buttress the slope again slackened and I could see what I thought was the summit close at hand. The views were just beginning to open up.


Again the grade steepened which was much easier than the postholing in the flatter areas. I reached a corniced edge which I went around and finally saw our summit another 150' above us with again lesser slope. I was a bit demoralized because I thought we were about to top out so I had Bruce take over trailbreaking for the last push to the summit. Thankfully we reached the summit for some impressive views.


Running low on time I pushed the pace back to the lake and soon were making our descent back to the valley below. I wanted to avoid the icy stretches so I aimed for some more open areas of softer snow that I had avoided on the way up. I had a short tense face in descent of a slabby watercourse with rotten snow but that was a small price to pay to avoid the iced over steeper sections. Soon we were back on the road for the long slog out. For good measure the weather had been much more agreeable than expected but our luck ran out as it poured the last 4 miles back to the car. Thanks to Bruce for making this trip a success I am rather doubtful that I would have made it solo. Another wonderful day to be out. Even though the vertical on this trip was only moderate it was a very taxing day.






Approx 13 miles 3200' of climb 8:30 car to car