[TR] Silver Peak - Annete Lake, North West Ridgeline 3/26/2016

[montynet]

Trip: Silver Peak - Annete Lake, North West Ridgeline

 

Date: 3/26/2016

 

Trip Report:

A group of 6 climbers from Adventure Explorers, met up in Seattle area around 7:00 AM. We drove to the Annette Lake TH. We started our approach hike around 8:00. The Annette Lake trail is compact due to it's popularity. Several parties were already at the trail head. The road to the trail off I-90 is snow-free. We left the trail behind around 3280 ft, our intent was to go to the ridgeline the leads to Silver Peak. We climbed to about 4320 ft and we hit the first lower ridgeline. We followed the ridgeline until we saw Silver's basin and because we saw some loose slab activity in the bowl we decided to take the higher ridgeline knowing that we would have to deal with cornices. There are some exposed sections along the upper ridgline and an ice axe is necessary. We were carrying rope and pickets but we did not use them as our group was very comfortable without protection. We saw one other party of 2 attempting the same mountain. In the end, our group and the party of 2 summitted successfully. In the way down, we dropped down to the Silver's basin using plunge stepping and the snow was perfect for that. Some of the our group (4/6) used snowshoes starting in the lower ridgeline. They were helpful.

 

If you're interested in a gpx file, here's our route:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/57379305/Silver%20Peak%20-%20Spring.gpx

 

Some pictures below, more pictures can be found in AEX's meetup site:

 

 

Gear Notes:

Helmet, Ice Axe, snowshoes, standard hiking gear. (Crampons were not needed this time although all of us carried them).

 

Approach Notes:

Annette Lake trail compact (no showshoes for that).