Myself plus eight others set out on an ambitious adventure to tag Snowking mountain as the final outing of the Bushwacker's scrambling course. We found it to be quite an adventure. Snowking is a peak on the edge of the Glacier Peak Wilderness not too far from Marblemount. It is accessed from the Cascade River Road (starting at 1,200 ft) via a long steep bushwack up Kindy Ridge. The original plan was to head to a small lake near Cyclone Lake to set up camp for two nights.
After a few exciting creek crossings in our fleat of Subarus, we hit the trail head around 11:00. The hike starts up old road which is now quite overgrown. It gains elevation steadily, but not very steeply. After about three miles the trail opens up and a boot path leads steeply up the hillside. We named this area crescent wrench meadows thanks to two wrenches we found sitting on a rock in almost pristine condition. After a quick lunch we headed up the path.
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| Crescent Wrench Meadow |
This next section is quite steep. The trail is fairly visible, although large blow downs obscure it in some sections. It is very direct, but slow going. After a few hours, we reached a section of trail that comes very near a creek to the west around 4,200ft. There is a small waterfall here. At this point the trail was pretty flooded by snow melt and began to partially covered in snow. By 4,400ft the trail was pretty much all covered, but we continued to climb. We briefly encountered the trail again and used it to traverse the side of the 5116 high point. This turned out to be the only high point of the trip we didn't have to cross.
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| Diane forges up the climbers trail |
Soon after we reached a small saddle and took a brief break. From here it was more up as we continued to follow the ridge. Originally we thought we could skirt around the next high point (5791) but we were blocked by sections of unstable snow and large rock boulders. At this point it was also getting late and we began to realize setting up camp near Cyclone was not realistic. Instead we decided to check out the top of 5791 and see if there was a good spot to set up camp. This turned out to be a great decision. This little summit offered a nice protected area for our tents and panoramic views of the surrounding areas. We arrived at about 7:30 that evening and tiredly dug out tent sites, melted, snow, and cooked dinner. The sunset was quite nice and the super moon was out in full glory. After about 6 miles and 4500ft we had no trouble falling fast asleep.
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| Our first view of Snowking |
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| The summit near our camp |
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| Heading up to our camp |
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| Digging out the vestibule after a long day |
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| Panorama from Camp |
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| Our camp site with a view |
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| Mt. Formidable |
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| Johannesburg |
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| Watching the sunset |
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| Moon rising |
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| Hidden Lake Peak and El Dorado at Sunset |
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| Snowking sunset |
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| Super moon |
The next morning it was time for the real adventure--the summit. We had spent the previous evening staring down Snowking which still seemed pretty far away and rather intimidating. Regardless we headed out ready to conquer. Our team for day two was down to six. Several folks had decided to stay back due to injury and illness, but we were still in good spirits.
From camp we had to drop down about 550ft to a saddle, then climb back up an additional 500ft. This proved to be the theme of the day as three additional high point stood between our camp and the summit. The first two weren't bad. They were snowy and involved kicking steps, but weren't too steep. The next one we decided to attempt to contour around. This was not such a great idea. Things started out fine, but we soon found ourselves on a steep slope with icy snow that did not take steps very well. It involved a lot of concentration and caution to make our way across this slope. The snow field ended when we reached a clump of trees that felt kind of like a dead end. Continuing on was too treacherous because of moats from melting snow. Dropping down, was also pretty rough. It left us with one option--clawing our way through a clump of steep vegetation. This wasn't pretty, but it was the safest option and eventually got us back on the ridge a bit below the high point.
It was another 150ft or so to the summit. Unfortunately it was across a rocky mess that was obscured by weak snow patches. The weather had also been taking a turn this day and rain was quickly approaching. After a few minutes of discussion we decided that it would take us way too long to pick our way up this last section and the best approach was blocked by thin unstable snow. It was bitter sweet to be so close, but not on the actual summit. We stayed positive and declared our rock pile its own little summit. We hunkered down out of the wind, enjoyed a few snacks and the fading view and decided it was time to head down.
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| Looking west at the storm approaching |
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| Frozen lakes down below |
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| The valley to the southwest |
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| The summit block |
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| Panorama from the "summit" |
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| Mutchler |
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| Out to the north |
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| Doug on our "summit" |
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| It's windy up here |
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| Our camp on the high point on the right and the three additional high points we crossed |
Going down was a breeze. It took us about 45 minutes to come down what had taken almost 2.5 hrs to come up. We still had the annoying three additional humps to climb. This time we voted against traversing and just hike up and over all of them. The one we originally contoured proved to be equally tricky to climb over. The snow was steep and there was no direct route.
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| Little dots moving down the mountain |
The next morning, we awoke to rain. We packed up our tents in the rain and hiked down the final 6 miles all in the rain. It was steep and slick and we were pretty happy to see the cars and put on dry clothes. We did run into two mamma blue grouse and their babies on the final stretch of trail which was a fun surprise. Despite the rainy last day it was a great trip in an amazing corner of the world. I think if I were to do this again, I'd go a bit later in the year in hope of less snow to provide some faster travel, but really this is a beautiful area regardless.
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| Patrick earning style points on day three |
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| Our route (gps stopped tracking on our return from the summit) |
Stats:
Total mileage about 18
Elevation gain about 8,000ft
Our team: Doug, Patrick, Celese, Piyush, Martin, Robert, Diane, Winlyn, and me
I enjoyed your adventure from the comfort of my living room here in San Antonio TX. Thanks for posting this exciting playground adventure. Looking forward to seeing you soon.
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