[Randy]

I won't say too much about this trip as the route has been written up nicely a couple times before. I had only the morning for an outing, so I figured Hibox was close enough to Seattle that I could be back for my mid afternoon commitments. I was on the Rachel Lake trail by 0745 and at the second avalanche fan under the mountain a short time later. Of course I didn't bother to read previous route descriptions prior to leaving, but thought I remembered where a faint path went up the side of the mountain. Well, I bashed and thrashed around in some slide alder for 15 minutes or so before realizing I did not know where the path was. I retreated to the trail intent on making it over to an old growth spur that I could take past the worst of the brush if I wasn't going to have a trail to follow. I got lucky though and once into the old growth I found an obvious path that led me all the way up the mountain. Pretty decent route as it goes through cool heathery parkland with views of the impressive summit block almost the entire way. Once directly under the summit I followed the path to the east and then found an obvious gully that took me all the way to the top. No troubles nor snow on the route. I was impressed by the views from the top especially that of Chimney Rock and also Three Queens which Craig and I climbed last fall. Anyhow. Retraced my route back down and even saw two different groups headed up the steep way trail which surprised me as I never see people (aside from at the obvious places) on my trips. The 2.5 miles of flat trail back to my truck were a bit tedious, so I jogged as much as I could. Back in Seattle by 3 with plenty of time to spare and not a single minus point handed out!

[Tom]

Regarding the gully leading to the summit if it's the one I'm thinking about... The 75 scrambles book advises against it due to loose rock. I avoided it when I went up and was very glad I did as several large rocks came tumbling down after I had passed underneath. Could have been a fluke coincidence but ya never know...

[Randy]

Yeah, that gully was pretty loose and rotten when I came down - I'd hate to be at the bottom when people were descending from the top. On the way up the gully, I stayed on the nice rock on climbers left (class 4) which was a fun and more efficient alternative to going right up the middle.