[Middle E]

With avalanche danger up in more interesting destinations I thought Teneriffe would be a good alternative. I started off shortly before 9am, passing a group of Mountains to Sound volunteers staging for some work on the new Kamikaze Falls trail. Because of the expected new snow I decided against Kamikaze Falls and opted for the road instead. At ~2000' there was a dusting of snow sticking to the road, and a little above 3000' the new snow was deep enough to put on snowshoes.

First snow

Deeper snow

As I got higher the snow got deeper and the going slower. I began to doubt whether I could make the summit, but slowed down to conserve energy. By 11:30 I reached the saddle and decided to keep going.

Route up, from the saddle

From the saddle

The final mile to the summit from the saddle was slow. The final 200' to the summit was a steep wallow. Those familiar with this route to Teneriffe may understand why this bit took almost 15 minutes, but I was rewarded with this great view.

Summit 'view'

At the summit there was one other set of tracks that had come up the Kamikaze Falls route. I did not linger at all, as the wind was up and it was starting to snow pretty hard. Back to the car a bit after 3pm. 14 miles, 4200'

[Tom_Sjolseth]

I was up there too, but took the KF trail. I ran into two groups (one group of ~10, and one group of three plus a dog). Turned out to be a good hike in conditions I have not seen all year up there. About 18-24" of fresh snow near the summit, very soft. Didn't need snowshoes or traction.

[TrailPair]

Hmmm.....looks like a "TrailPair" summit view!

[Snowdog]

sounds like shades of our trip earlier this year, esp. the wallowing in snow up high. And the views.......I have yet to do that on a nice day.....

[Dr. T]

Seems like this is a safer high avalanche warning trail...is that a fair assessment? Doing this tomorrow...should we stay on the road considering the conditions or is the more direct route by the falls safe enough?

[kitya]

More direct route (through the falls) follows the ridge and thus safer than the road (road passes under a couple steep slopes). Give plenty of space to cornices on the summit. In general Teneriffe is very safe though, there is not that much snow left probably and forest is dense.

[Dr. T]

Thanks, I'll keep all of that in mind

[Dr. T]

Did the road up and down, didn't see any avalanche issues along that path...two different parties went up the falls route...a couple of young guys warned of steepness and deep snow, older guys after them said it was no issue going up...go figure Seems like a fun loop going up the falls route and coming down along the road...much more interesting trail then Si...didn't feel like almost 14 miles

[Just_Some_Hiker]

[Dr. T]

What about lookout mountain lookout? Looks like when you exit the forest, there is a open slope but from reports you can hike down a bit back into forest and then traverse over.