Matt Tea, Earl Grey, Hot
Joined: 30 Jan 2007 Posts: 4307 | TRs | Pics Location: Shoreline |
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Matt
Tea, Earl Grey, Hot
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Sat Apr 07, 2018 12:10 am
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Date: March 25, 2018
Destination: Yellow Hill 5527 & Elbow Peak 5740 (USGS Teanaway Butte & Cle Elum Lake)
People: Matt, Carla (Dicey), Suzanne (Sadie's Driver), Barry (Middle E)
Dogs: Cooper
Short Version:
The Teanaway valley gave us mostly sunny weather. The Jolly Creek fire gave us brown trees lower and blackened trunks higher. Yellow Hill gave us a good view of the Enchantments. Elbow provided an interesting course along a cornice line.
Yellow Elbow GPS track Hiking from Yellow to Elbow
Yellow Hill
The snow berm on the Middle Fork Teanaway Road has mostly melted, so we were able to drive most of the way to the Yellow Hill trailhead. Snow on the road was hard packed, so it was okay for driving during cold temperatures. On a warmer day, there could be some risk of lower-clearance cars sinking in and getting stuck. We parked at the wide area just after the Middle Fork bridge, since we didn't want to drive up the icy incline for the 0.4 mile to the trailhead.
The trail uphill gradually shifted from mostly bare ground to hard packed snow. After crossing the creek drainage at 4400 feet, the fresh snow became 6-8 inches deep in places, but we were still able to walk uphill without snowshoes to the summit of Yellow Hill. We hiked about a tenth mile past the summit to a more open spot with wide views. The crest became a bit windy, thus not so comfortable hanging around for a break.
Turkey tracks pointing the way Hiking on the brown road and trees. Still having patches of bare ground. Icicle tree Group photo on Yellow Hill Stuart and Enchantments (Sherpa, Argonaut, Colchuck, Dragontail, Little Annapurna)
Elbow Peak
Carla and I donned snowshoes and continued onward to Elbow Peak. The next section went down and up over a couple intermediate points. The forest now showed the more intense burn of the Jolly Creek Fire, with only blackened trunks left standing.
Looking ahead from Yellow to Elbow Hiking through the burn Carla coming over one of the intermediate bumps Layers of scenery: cornices on a ridge line below, burned slopes of the Jolly Creek fire, Cle Elum Lake, Domerie & Baldy beyond the Lake, I-90 clearcuts, and storm clouds out west
Beyond Point 5438 was an interesting line of cornices on the last wide saddle before Elbow Peak. It made a fine illustration of wind transport, with almost bare slopes on the west, smoothly curving lines of wind loaded slopes on the east, and a cornice line on the crest pointing the wind direction. Fortunately the windward side was blown bare down to the rock, so we could see a clear path to work our way along the back edge of the cornices.
Hiking down from Point 5438 Looking ahead to the cornice line
After that it was just kicking steps uphill on the ridge crest, though we weren't the first ones to lay tracks there.
Little tracks on the crest Big rabbit tracks on the crest Big rabbit tracks (their length was almost as long as my snowshoe) Carla coming up the to the summit
More wind effects on the summit ridge:
Sastrugi and cornices on the crest Places where the wind stripped the fresh crust off down to the older ice crust Summit cornice looking out toward the Enchantments
We retreated back to a more sheltered corner for lunch, and the clouds cleared away to provide us a sunny break.
Lunch break hiding out from the wind Tree icicles deorating our lunch site
Along our return, shifting sun and shadows lit up the cornice line even more dramatically.
The ridges back to Yellow Hill Our tracks coming down from Elbow Going back up Point 5438 Looking back to Elbow Hiking back through the burn
Stats: 11.8 miles, 4430 cumulative gain, 8:30 hours
“As beacons mountains burned at evening.” J.R.R. Tolkien
“As beacons mountains burned at evening.” J.R.R. Tolkien
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