Another June weekend, more alpine plans put on hold! This time we aimed to get out in the morning as strong storms were forecast to come in after noon and last the remainder of the weekend. McClellan Butte, along I-90 just beyond exit 38's views, had been on the list for a while, and the time of year seemed right to try for a scramble at the hopefully snow free summit block.
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| Views down towards I-90 and the calm half of the weather |
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| Views towards summit and innocent looking clouds... |
The trail follows a well signed and treaded track up through the forest, and we hit snow just as the trail starts to traverse south paralleling the ridge before swinging around and looping to the summit. We decided that since we totted the axes and crampons along with, we may as well make use of them and headed straight up to the ridge, which was reached pretty directly, only minor adjustments needed for rock bands or thin snow bridges.
The summit scramble proved fun, and rather short... or so we thought at first. Just as we got to the "summit" clouds blew out and the views cleared, showing the summit perhaps about 1/4 mile further along the ridge. This last section featured the most exposed, but very solid scrambling.
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| Final scramble and summit, in the background |
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| Summit views in monochrome |
Weather came in on que (thanks
UW WRF-GFS model!) and the rain started to drop just as we got off the rock, and LOUD cracks of thunder rumbled through the mountains as we got under the cover of the thick forest. The rest of the hike was a quick jog down the trail in pouring rain.... quite the leg burner!
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