Rock Field Trip 2015

I volunteer as a trip leader and alpine scrambling instructor for the Mountaineers. This year we took our rock field trip to a new location a few miles away from our old location that we have been using for many decades. So this year was special, and presented new challenges with familiarizing ourselves with a new site and how to best utilize it. But after much planning and hard work buy several other volunteers we had our trip planned and were ready to teach.

We taught the students taking the course how to traverse on rock fields and slabs, basic bouldering moves like mantling, stemming, counter pressure, wedging and others, using a map and compass, route finding, leave-no-trace, ropes and knots and belaying using a hasty harness.

The day was perfect, it was clear and blue skies as far as the eye could see. It was warm with a cool breeze. We had lots of fun with the new students and things worked out pretty well for being at a new location for the first time. After the learning was over we headed down to eight mile campground and had a BBQ and enjoyed good times and tasty food. Lots of fun!

Region: Central Cascades, Leavenworth Area
Pass requirement: None

As always check out all the photos from the hike and every hike by clicking on the "Photos" tab.

Boardman Lake

Today was a clear blue sky day, but seeing that it is still February that meant it was also pretty cold. But my daughter and I bundled up and headed out on the Mountain Loop Highway. We passed the super popular Lake 22 trail head which is right off the highway and noticed the parking lot was already completely filled with people parking on the highway. We kept driving, way too many people for my taste. We eventually arrived at the trail head for Boardman Lake, finding ourselves to be the only car there. But that didn't last long, before we hit the trail another car had pulled in right behind us.

The trail starts shadowed by trees and in almost no time at all you reach Lake Evan, which is a small lake with no real lakefront to enjoy. We did find that the lake was frozen over with a thin layer of ice. But we quickly got back on the trail heading for the larger more prominent Boardman Lake. The trail climbs slightly just about 300 ft worth over the one mile total hike, all in the shadows of large cedar trees.

We reached Boardman Lake with my daughter, who is not yet 3, walking the entire way by herself, which is a big accomplishment for her. I have taken her hiking quite a bit in her early years, but always carried her in my pack. Now I'm trying to convince her "hiking" is not daddy carrying her in a pack but actually she does the walking. Today was a success, and I think she enjoyed it immensely. We spent some time at the frozen lake sitting in the sun trying to warm up. We ate a few snacks and saw more people arrive as the time past. On the way back I carried her in the pack just to speed things up a bit. But I have to say it was a glorious day enjoying the cold wilderness with my daughter. I look forward to more of that this year and in the years to come.

Region: North Cascades, Mountain Loop Highway
Distance: 2 miles
Elevation gain: 300 ft.
Peak Elevation: 3100 ft.
Difficulty: very easy
Pass requirement: Northwest forest pass.

As always check out all the photos from the hike and every hike by clicking on the "Photos" tab.

Old Robe Trail

Today was an extraordinarily warm January day, so I thought it would be a perfect day to take my oldest daughter on a quick and easy hike. With the local air temperatures reaching 65 degrees and blue skies we headed past Granite Falls on the old trusty Mountain Loop Highway and stopped at the Old Robe Trail. The trail head is right off the highway where you will see tons of cars parked along the road in the height of summer, but today there were only 6. As you leave the highway you walk through thick trees heading toward the Stillaguamish River. Soon the trail takes you down the hill from the road, descending about 200 feet to the river valley bottom. Then you walk about a half a mile until you meet up with the river.

We didn't venture very far after reaching the river. We only walked about a mile before we turned around and headed back toward the car. I had my daughter in my pack the whole time and she only wanted to get out to eat some snacks and throw rocks in the river. But she quickly wanted to get back in the pack. She very much enjoyed riding in the backpack making daddy do all the work. We had lots of fun just taking a quick jaunt into the woods. My daughter talked constantly about all the beautiful things she was seeing saying "[Fill in the blank] is my favorite!"

This is certainly a great way to get out in the woods and see lots of nature and wilderness when you are pressed for time and want to stay close to home. Great for kids and the whole family, just beware of crowds on summer weekends. The trail continues on a little further to an old train tunnel that is quite fun for young kids, but the trail ends shortly after the old train tunnel.

Region: North Cascades, Mountain Loop Highway
Distance: 2 miles
Elevation Gain: 230 ft.
Peak Elevation:1100 ft.
Difficulty: Very Easy
Pass Requirement: No

As always check out all the photos from the hike and every hike by clicking on the "Photos" tab.

AIARE 1 Course

So I spent the weekend with the Mountaineers up at Mt. Baker for an AIARE 1 (Avalanche Education) course. The weather was cloudy, about 34 degrees and snowed lightly off and on. Visibility was very limited and the amount of snow on the mountain was unseasonably low. But there was enough to demonstrate the concepts of reading terrain, traveling safely, beacon searches, avalanche hazards and making observations including looking at different layers in the snow pack.

We had tons of fun with our group. We all had snowshoes, except our two instructors who were on back-country skis. That was good to learn how to travel with skiers, since they often can't travel the same paths as snowshoers. We got to plan our own destination and figure out how we would travel avoiding specific avalanche hazards and choosing terrain wisely and route finding in near white-out conditions.

In the end, I learned a lot about avalanche dangers, how to spot avalanche conditions, how to trip plan effectively, how to travel in safe terrain and how to respond in an emergency situation. I had a lot of fun and got to meet some great people. The only thing I could have hoped for was better weather and snow conditions. But you can't control that.

As always check out all the photos from the hike and every hike by clicking on the "Photos" tab.

Mt. Pilchuck

This morning my brother and I got up and headed past Granite Falls to climb Mt. Pilchuck. It was a beautiful clear day, but very cold. It was about 20˚ when we started up the mountain. The trail was covered in snow but it had been clear and cold for several days so the snow was very hard and frozen. Parts of the trail that have had heavy foot traffic previously was complete ice.

We made progress up the mountain intentionally slower than normal. We didn't want to start sweating, being wet in the cold weather is never a good plan. We eventually made our way up and out of the thick trees and were hiking in the sun. The sun warmed up the frozen snow and ice hanging from the trees enough that chunks of ice were falling from above. We only got hit a couple times by some of the smaller falling chunks. In the clearing we were presented with a great view of Mt. Rainier to the south.

When we reached the peak the fire lookout was closed. There were 4 other people up at the lookout when we arrived. We hung out on for a few minutes and ate some snacks and enjoyed the surrounding mountain views literally in all directions. After we soaked in the views we headed back down the mountain, and just in time too, on our way back down we counted nearly 50 people on their way up to the peak. That makes for a crowded lookout that isn't even open. On our way down the trekking poles came in very handy. The trail was very slick in lots of areas and some sort of traction would have been very helpful, but we didn't have that. Trekking poles helped prevent more falls than the 3 or so that I took.

Region: North Cascades, Mountain Loop Highway
Distance: 6 miles
Elevation Gain: 2200 ft.
Peak Elevation: 5324 ft.
Difficulty: Medium
Pass Requirement: Yes, Northwest Forest Pass.

As always check out all the photos from the hike and every hike by clicking on the "Photos" tab.

Labyrinth Mountain

Well today's hike starting a little later than we had anticipated. We got to the trailhead and started hiking at 11:00 am (typically I like to be on my way down by this time of day, but it all worked out.) The four of us starting climbing the steep trail and quickly my legs could feel the pain of the previous days' climb of Mt. Mastiff. The trail is shaded as you hike up through the thick tree coverage gaining lots of elevation very quick: about 1500 feet in .8 miles. After the initial steepness, the trail's incline eases off a little bit as you exit the thick tree coverage and you climb the rest of the way to Minotaur Lake. The lake was beautiful with Labyrinth Mountain standing directly behind it, asking to be climbed.

From the lake we made our way to the east side of the lake toward the ridge where you can look down upon Theseus Lake. We continued upward along the ridge toward Labyrinth. We made our way into some tree coverage again for a quick time and exited up onto some rock. From here there is a great view of Minotaur Lake which you just left. Very beautiful with the fall colors changing. We continued up following a faint boot path up to the peak of Labyrinth Mountain, there are several peaks and it may be hard to tell just by looking which is the actual highest point. But we determined it was the most east point that is the highest point, and that is where we found the summit registry and benchmark identifying Labyrinth Mountain.

At the peak we rested and ate some lunch, took in the views, signed the registry, relaxed and took some pictures. While we were at the peak a jet fighter flew right by us! It was flying low through the valleys and took a sharp banking turn right next to us, couldn't have been more than a few hundred yards away. It was really dang cool! After that excitement we made our way back down the mountain, on our way down we met a couple guys going up to Labyrinth and we tried pointing the route we took to help them out, but as we looked back a few minutes later they had gone to the wrong peak. Don't know if they every made it to the true peak. But I'm sure they had great views nonetheless.

We made our way back down rather quickly and were able to get done and home at a really reasonable hour considering how late we got started. I will be honest, at the start of the day I was not in the best mood and wasn't too excited about climbing today due to sore legs, a wicked headache and the lateness of the start that we had. But I'm definitely glad I did end up going, my headache went away, it was an absolutely beautiful day, the views were amazing and I had great company once again. Certainly a worthwhile trip. Good times once again (I've found its hard to have a miserable day in the mountains.)

Region: Central Cascades, Stevens Pass East
Distance: 5 miles
Elevation Gain: 2800 ft
Peak Elevation: 6350 ft
Difficulty: S2, T1
Pass Requirement: Yes, Northwest Forest Pass

As always check out all the photos of the hike and every hike by clicking on the "Photos" tab.

Mount Mastiff

This morning I woke up early and got ready to head to the mountains. I met a group of fellow Mountaineers at the trail head of Merritt Lake over passed Stevens Pass about 8:30 am and got going up the trail at about 9:00. It was an absolute beautiful morning. So we started off and followed the switch back trail gaining about 1800 feet of elevation before you come to a junction in the trail at about 4820 ft, one continues on north to Merritt Lake the other heads south. We took the one heading south, which switchbacks some more and becomes less maintained. There was an area here with lots of downed trees and the trail becomes hard to follow and we eventually lost the trail. After some short discussion amongst the group we determined our direction of travel and quickly found the trail again. We continued on this trail until about 5400 ft and then followed a climbers trail up the ridge. Along the ridge were some excellent views of the valley and surrounding mountains.

As we continued up the ridge enjoying the views and the beautiful mountain ash changing color, we caught glimpse of Lost Lake which was quite the sight. There were a handful of people on rafts floating around the lake. About this time, we took a rest, ate some food, hydrated ourselves and enjoyed the views. Then we donned our helmets and got ready for some rock scramble, we descended a couple hundred feet or so from the ridge (which wasn't very passable) and scrambled toward a more accessible route up the rest of the mountain. We then ascended up a boulder field and eventually made our way all the way to the top of Mount Mastiff. Here the views were astounding, views of Glacier Peak, Labyrinth Mountain (a bit of foreshadowing there, since this is were I would be going the next day) Lake Wenatchee and more were our backdrops.


At the top we rested for a bit, ate lunch, took pictures and signed the summit registry. Some of us even took a quick nap (okay that was me.) It was such a beautiful day with blue skies all around us, but there was quite a lot of wind at the peak, so it was a bit chilly. But after a good time at the top we made our descent down the mountain. On our way down I used trekking poles for the very first time. I have used them before while snowshoeing, but I've never used them on a trail just on a hike or scramble before. Lots of people were telling me how much they liked them and they saved their knees. I think I liked them and may use them more often. But we made our way down safely, no injuries other than sore muscles and sore feet. It was a great trip with lots of beautiful views with a good group.

Region: Central Cascades, Stevens Pass East
Distance: 10 miles
Elevation Gain: 3800 ft.
Peak Elevation: 6700 ft.
Difficulty: S3, T3
Pass Requirement: Yes, Northwest Forest Pass.

As always check out all the photos of the hike and every hike by clicking on the "Photos" tab.