[TR] Snowfield Peak and Pyramid Peak - Standard 6/18/2010

[Le Piston]

Trip: Snowfield Peak and Pyramid Peak - Standard

 

Date: 6/18/2010

 

Trip Report:

This trail report will be without my usual lots of pictures, owing to a frustrating glitch in the Gallery uploading process. With a weather forecast of rain all weekend, I figured on getting a good workout and spending a lot of time inside my new tent reading. Luckily the weatherman is often in error, as turned out for our trip to Snowfield Peak. My friend Rod and I got our permits at Marblemount from a ranger who obviously thought we were nuts to go up with predicted 30-70% chance of rain all weekend and headed for the Pyramid Lake trailhead. We had one sprinkle en route to our camp on the toe of Colonial Glacier. The sun came out and we set up camp, ate, and dashed up to Pyramid Peak figuring to take advantage of the break in the weather. The snow was pretty mushy with some postholing up to the knees. The views of Baker, Shuksan, Jack, and the Pickets were a bonus. The weather Saturday was perfect, so we headed for our main objective...Snowfield Peak. We again ran into soft snow crossing the Colonial and Neve glaciers, making for some character building postholing. We went up the Northwest face on snow up to 50 degrees to the West ridge. The rock was partly covered in snow, so we opted to head via a ledge to the Southwest face and a snow ramp to the summit. At this point the clouds were piling in, so we took a few hasty pictures and headed down the way we came, placing a couple pickets to protect the steep runout section. About half way back on the Neve glacier, we found ourselves in fog/cloud with visibility of about 50 feet. We had another rain shower heading up to the col between the Neve and Colonial glaciers, but got back to camp dry. At this point the weatherman was proved correct and it rained on and off all night...spoiling any further peak bagging hopes for Colonial, Paul Bunyan's Stump, or any other close by peaks. The hike out Sunday proved "interesting", as our tracks were mostly gone and the trail is indistinct at the best of times. We ended up doing some good ole North Cascades bushwhacking to get back to the main trail through lovely wet slide alder, devils club, vine maple, etc. This was a great area, with awesome views and lots of climbing objectives to choose from. I'd love to go back in nice weather.

 

Gear Notes:

We took 2 pickets (used), 33 meter rope, standard axes, crampons (not used), small rock rack for Pinacle and Paul Bunyans Stump (alas not used).

 

Approach Notes:

Ran into snow at 4200 feet. The trail is hard to follow. We followed trail to a knoll approx. 5600 feet elevation with cairns at the top which led to fairly steep cliff. We bypassed this easily on the way out contouring on snow on the west side of this knoll.

Edited June 25, 2010 by Le Piston

[kukuzka1]

looks great, alot of people get discouraged to get out because of the weather forcast but sometimes you can still get some things done and get a work out

[Le Piston]

A few more pictures from the trip.

Edited August 28, 2010 by Le Piston

[Otto]

Very nice, looks great, thanks for the TR and pictures!

[Le Piston]

From someone who's done some fine routes and TR's, I appreciate that. Thanks!