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MangyMarmot Member
Joined: 06 Apr 2012 Posts: 473 | TRs | Pics
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With the good weather forecast for this weekend, I decided to head to Shroud mountain. Somehow I got it into my head that this wasn't all that difficult of a hike. This misconception was about to be corrected. The road to the Toga ridge trailhead was in good shape. There was a little snow and ice on the last mile or so, but nothing to worry about. The first mile of the trail was snow free. After that, the trail had a few inches of snow. Easy enough to follow. Even though I've hiked this trail a number of times, I had never done the short detour to Mount Finn. It was time to give it a go. The way up was straight forward. Just up the hill. No real obstacles. Just a little low brush and a few inches of snow. The views on top were nice. The summit itself is in the trees, but there are meadows and viewpoints nearby.
Malachite Daniel, Hinman, Shroud and Jumar Finn summit
Then I headed down the ridge toward Sawyer and got back on the trail. I decided to skip Sawyer for now figuring I could always go up there on the way back. At the pass, I took the trail to Fisher Lake, but as I got higher, the snow got deeper, and soon I lost the trail. I made my way cross country to the Northwest ridge of Jumar mountain. The scramble to the ridge was reasonably steep and slick due to the snow. The snow at this point was about a foot deep in some places. Deep enough to for some postholing. Other places it was thinner and easily slid on the underlying ground. The ridge is fairly flat until you get close to the summit. There it suddenly gets quite steep and the trees get dense. It was a struggle to fight my way up through the trees on slick ground. Just as I was approaching the summit, a cliff appeared in front of me. That was definitely not going to go. I traversed around a corner to the right across more steep, slick ground and more cliff. There were places where you might be able to scramble in dry conditions, but definitely not when the cliff is covered with snow and ice. After a few more corners and a few more cliffs, I finally got to another steep tree slope. Once at the top of that, I was on the summit plateau. it's actually quite a large summit up there. Good place for lunch.
Jumar from the Nothwest ridge Fisher Lake from Jumar
Next stop was Shroud. It's not far from Jumar, but the direct route was clearly a no-go. Likewise, to the right were just cliffs. I headed to the foot of the mountain and then left. There is a large talus field here. It is shaded from the sun so there was about a foot of snow. Plenty of snow to hide whatever you are about to step on, but not enough to keep you from punching through into a hole. This made every step interesting. On the other side of the talus field was a steep snow slope leading to Shroud's Southeast ridge. The ridge was a dividing line between about a foot of snow on the North, to just a few spots here and there on the South side. It didn't take long to get to the summit from there. The views were awesome. Especially Daniel, Dip Top, Lynch and Terrace.
Hinman Terrace and Trico? Ptarmigan Lakes Lynch, Dip Top and Daniel Jumar from Shroud Terrace and an unnamed peak on the Southeast ridge of Shroud
It took considerably longer to get here than I expected. I had about three hours of daylight left. It was clear I would not make it back to the car before I ran out of light. I did not relish the idea of going back the way I had come. I decided to go down the snow slope, then keep going down to the Ptarmigan Lakes. From the lower lake, I can contour to the right with a little elevation gain and make my way to Fisher Lake. From there I can try to follow the trail back to the intersection with the Tonga Ridge trail. The way down to the upper Ptarmigan lake went slower than I wanted it to. The snow covered talus field was tricky to navigate, then steep snow covered descent down to the lake. Getting to the other side of the lake was a slippery bushwhack. Getting to and around the lower lake wasn't a problem. The way to Fisher lake also wasn't bad. I even picked up what looked like a fisherman's trail for a little while. On the other side of Fisher Lake was smoke. Someone must have been camping there. I quickly found a trail that wound around the lake. At the other side of the lake I found footprints. Several people and a dog. First sign of other people I found all day. Daylight was fading so I didn't investigate the smokey side of the lake and just followed the footprints back toward the Tonga Ridge Trail. The footprints made following the trail much easier and led me to back to the Tonga Ridge Trail.
Sunset
By the time I got here, the daylight was pretty much gone so I fished out my headlamp. The light was super dim. The batteries were dead. So I turned on my spare. Nothing. Oh yeah, the batteries are reversed so it doesn't turn on in the pack. It's a real pain getting them in the right way in the dark. Finally it came on. About 15 minutes later it suddenly shut off. Bad contact. I messed with batteries until it came on again. In 10 or fifteen minutes it shut of again. This pattern continued until I got back to the car. You would think A BD light would be built better than that. On the way to the car I was surprised how much snow had melted on the trail during the day. Significant stretches of trail were now melted out. Snow still lingered in shady sections.
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raising3hikers Member
Joined: 21 Sep 2007 Posts: 2343 | TRs | Pics Location: Edmonds, Wa |
Nice Dave, ha I know how those pesky headlamps don't give the light like they should
Good trip to get those pks in this late season
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KascadeFlat Member
Joined: 06 Jul 2020 Posts: 310 | TRs | Pics Location: Eating peanut M&Ms under my blue tarp |
Now I understand why it's called 'Dip Top'. Never really put two and two together on that one. Looks like a fun trip, way to get out and take advantage of the weather.
For a good time call: 1-800-SLD-ALDR.
For a good time call: 1-800-SLD-ALDR.
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RichP Member
Joined: 13 Jul 2006 Posts: 5628 | TRs | Pics Location: here |
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RichP
Member
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Mon Nov 02, 2020 8:15 am
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I just turn around the middle battery on my headlamp to make sure it doesn't turn on in my pack. Getting all three the right direction in pitch darkness really is a pain.
Yeah, it's a quite a way out there.
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Brushbuffalo Member
Joined: 17 Sep 2015 Posts: 1887 | TRs | Pics Location: there earlier, here now, somewhere later... Bellingham in between |
Quite the adventure!
MangyMarmot wrote: | About 15 minutes later it suddenly shut off. Bad contact. |
You probably know all this MM, but I have had too many instances where corroded contacts mess with the current flow. For that reason I remove, not just reverse, batteries when storing my lights for any length of time between uses. Recently I have taken to using lights with an internal rechargeable battery, which have never let me down ( yet).....and carry a very lightweight double AAA spare because I've developed a distaste for those unplanned bivies.
Passing rocks and trees like they were standing still
Passing rocks and trees like they were standing still
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MangyMarmot Member
Joined: 06 Apr 2012 Posts: 473 | TRs | Pics
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I've had to stumble out of the woods without a light a number of times, so now I get a bit paranoid about it. I carry two headlamps, a set of spare batteries, a tiny emergency light, my phone with the flashlight app, and my camera which, when you display a bright photo on the LCD display gives off barely enough light to stumble out by. One of those things should get me back to the car.
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Brushbuffalo Member
Joined: 17 Sep 2015 Posts: 1887 | TRs | Pics Location: there earlier, here now, somewhere later... Bellingham in between |
You definitely have it covered!
Weird that your lights were defiantly uncooperative on your hike out.
Passing rocks and trees like they were standing still
Passing rocks and trees like they were standing still
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