[Randy]

Had just a half day for mountain travel on Saturday, so I decided to start out at Stevens Pass which would allow us to quickly get up to 5500' and enjoy some of the finer views in the area. The original plan was to climb to the top of Point 5273' (aka Welldigger's Ass), but we didn't want to waste such a nice day on the dark, north facing slopes that border HWY 2. Instead, Jon and I parked in the ski area lot on the north side of the road where we quickly found the jeep/maintenance road heading up to Skyline Lake. There was 2" of fresh snow on top very firm snow, so we got by just fine without snowshoes for the first half of the trip. The road switchbacks its way up the subtle rib coming down from Point 5447', snaking past the radio tower at 4850', before finally losing definition in the snow somewhere around 5050'. Here we followed an obvious snowshoe trench to the NW where after a few minutes we came upon Skyline Lake. From the lake we headed to the saddle to the NW of the lake where we finally put on snowshoes and then headed along the ridge to our first summit. Steepish snow and rock protected the last 75' of Point 5440'+, but we managed fine and Jon even managed to pull it off without his axe he left in my truck. We stood on top for a few minutes then continued along the ridge to the west before turning north for the last 200' of Sky Mountain. Sky Mountain is essentially a walk-up and offers up great views to the north and nearby Lichtenburg Mountain. We sat on top for 45 minutes, ate lunch, and then headed back the way we had come; however, we by-passed Point 5440'+ by traversing below it to the south. Amazing weather and views all day and a good half-day trip. Car to car time was 4 hours.

Skyline Lake

Sky1

Sky2

Point 5440 from Sky

[Ice Girl]

i was up there this fall and the Lakes up there were really nice, i think there was at least 4 or 5. i got some good pic of them and some frost pic. Ice Girl

[Dayhike Mike]

Beautiful pics from the trip and sounds like you guys had a good time! Tom -- love the aerial photos; keep 'em coming!