Finally got out to the North Cascades to check off this fun peak. It's been on my to-do list for ages but something else always came up. We got a late start but had a great time moving at a leisurely pace and running into friends on the trail.
Black Peak started off the day in the clouds, but eventually cleared in the afternoon. The smoke was thick and could be smelled at times. The hike up to Wing Lake was pretty uneventful, and it was mostly easy hiking up to the col. We stayed too far left on the scree field near the top - saw ppl descend behind us later in the day much farther to the right, which looked way less loose. Oops.
Smoky views from the col
"Can you walk across that ridge so I can get a cool photo of you??"
Ran into Jen, Sam, and Diesel at the col on the way down!
The gully was looser than I expected, but we stayed slightly to climber's left and found that the rock was pretty stable. The final traverse to the summit was airy and fun. Views were magnificent even with so much smoke -- sometimes I feel like the haze adds a dreamy quality to the mountain layers. We soaked in the views for an hour or so before heading back down. We ran into trail friends Sam and Jen at the col and spent some time chatting before doing our descent. We watched the muted sunset at the lake (and one of us even went for a swim ) and made it back to the trailhead as darkness set in.
It definitely did. We could see Goode faintly through the smoke but none of the features. Similar story to Logan in the background of one of the photos I posted
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) and made it back to the trailhead as darkness set in.
