Having failed to get out into the mountains in the high pressure weather that dominated the entire work week, I was motivated to get out on Friday evening to photograph the night and take in a little alpine splendor before strong systems moved in on Saturday and Sunday. Ambitious plans for Rainier and Stuart quickly faded away when weather and NWAC forecasts suggested a mellower trip. Realizing it was also a full moon, I decided to climb Snoqualmie Mtn via Cave ridge - a fairly straight forward and easy route which would allow me to climb by the moonlight and drink in views of the Snoqualmie area before the winter's coat began to melt off in earnest.
Work commitments, a slow packing job and an acrobatic cat who wanted one more run around the house kept me from leaving town too early. It was past 9pm when I finally sauntered across I-90 and headed into the woods. Last year on Grante Mountain when I went solo the feeling of walking into the trees wasn't quite so spooky, as the trailhead is already a bit removed from the highway, and you already feel like you've started your trip. This time, however, I felt very aware of my actions as I stepped through the dense guard of pine trees which were ringed by deep spring tree wells. Despite the highway noise the utter darkness and muffled sounds in thick trees led me to believe I was already in the middle of nowhere. I tracked up the PCT until I found the typical creek crossing, which would have required a 2' down climb of vertical snow, crossing a decently narrow bridge, and a 2' overhanging snow bouldering problem. I thought seriously about doing it, as the challenge would have been fun, but thankfully quick overcame the impuse and scooted along on the SE side of the creek.
Not too far up valley another mellower crossing was available, as the snowshoe herd track suggested, and I was off up Commonwealth. Up to this point I haven't not gotten lost in Commonwealth Basin, in the day light. Yet I felt I had learned my lesson and navigating in the pitch black would be possible. To be fair, light doesn't help much, because for much of the way you can't see very far anyway. I finally got a glimpse of Red, which really highlighted just how far the melt had already reach, as half the face was already bare rock. The views quickly vanished again into the trees and I made my way across the drainage and up towards Cave ridge.
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| Red Mtn in the darkness |
My navigation was certainly not perfect, and I did enter the cave ridge drainage a bit further North than planned, which exposed me to a few steep slopes beneath cliff bands - I quickly shot down to the treed mellow slopes beneath them and cut my way further south and up the mellow treed side of the drainage. I eventually found a skintrack coming in from my left and followed it all the way up to the saddle between Guye and Cave Ridge proper. It was a remarkable experience to gaze back at Guye Peak and realize how much of a fin it really is. From the highway Guye showcases its massive SW face which leads one to believe it to be a mountain of substantial bulk, but looking down at Guye from the slopes above the saddle revealed the thin slender side I had never seen before. I entertained the thought of walking up Guye instead, as it was clearly much closer than the summit of Snoqualmie - but my original plans still enticed me up the ridge.
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| Guye peak and a rising full moon |
The skin track had ended and I followed mellow slopes in and out of trees up towards the last climb to gain the named feature along the ridge. It was on a traverse NW across a steep slope to gain a mellower approach to the last climb that I stopped dead in my tracks and knew my plans had changed. Chair peak shone brightly, reflecting the strong full moon that had now illuminated the landscape. Other Alpental valley peaks spread out around this lofty peak. The frosting, however, was the light pollution behind the peaks reflecting from civilization off to the west. Beautiful hues of orange blended into grey cloud which blended back into dark blue with stars topping it off. I quickly got out of the immediate, though mellow, avy path, and set up the tripod.
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| Already worth the trip. |
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| finishing the climb up to Cave Ridge |
It was a good hour or so before I finally convinced myself to finish the climb up to Cave Ridge, where I officially ended my climb for Snoqualmie Mtn and instead took pictures until 3AM. I learned the very valuable lesson that even a tripod securely thrust into dense snow can be moved by 30mph gusts of wind. Most of my exposures came out disappointingly soft, and despite the difficulties of focusing at night, I believe the wind was the culprit. The star trails in the shots, which short, indicated that camera motion, and not soft focus, was usually to blame. It was interesting that despite the bright conditions, the only thing I could fix a focus on was the moon - not even the lit up ridgelines produced enough contrast.
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| Beautiful scenes |
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| some snow still left on Red |
I finally made my way to a wind shelter and a cozy place to lay down, which just meant I had to setup the tripod on top of the bivy to keep shooting towards Rainier and Silver. Soon enough, however, my creative juices slowed and my eyes got heavy. I packed up my gear and stuffed all in my pack, which quickly became my pillow. I passed out hard and didn't wake until the sky was quite bright, but thankfully the conditions were not there for good sunrise pictures, so I rolled over and caught another hour of sleep.
The ski down was straight forward once I picked my way down the horrendous trapper crust up high. Any motion resembling a turn would simply grab your skis and lock them in place, leaving the rest of your body to attempt the turn, pivoting around your knees....eeeehh yeah. I basically kick turned and stem christied my way down into the trees, where the soft snow allowed for mushy buttery turns. I followed the skintrack I found all the way out to the private ski tow area - a much better place to access objectives on this side of Commonwealth Creek - no crossing I90, and no creek crossings!
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| Rainier in the morning |
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Weather was obviously on its way in - time to head east!
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