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raising3hikers Member
Joined: 21 Sep 2007 Posts: 2344 | TRs | Pics Location: Edmonds, Wa |
After yesterday's cloudy hike up Pratt Mtn., I couldn't waste a good sunny forecast for saturday. So I headed up to the North Cascades to check out the Cascade river road. I had a few ideas but they depended on how far the road was plowed. I soon got my answer cause at about 7 miles, the plowing had stopped. I parked right before the Lookout Creek bridge and walked up about a quarter mile to the Lookout mountain trail head.
The hike started at 7 a.m. while it was still a little dark. The sun came up quickly and I was on my way up the many switchbacks. There wasn't that much snow on the trail, maybe a foot, and there were even areas without snow. At about 3500', I put my snow shoes on and made my way through a nice higher elevation old growth forest. There were big hemlocks and Alaskan cedars. The way I was going got pretty steep, my ice ax came in very handy. The higher I got, the more open the forest became and the sun was shining brightly. So I took a break to get my sunglasses out and dropped them down a steep slope. Oh well, I continued without them. I eventually reached a flatter area and walked a ridge toward Lookout. From here I could now see to the North with Baker to the Pickets in view.
early morning in the north cascades fog over the Cascade river Baker and I think Bacon
After the ridge I had to drop back down a little and start traversing some extremely steep slopes. I would like to see how the trail looks in the summer cause today it was full of powdery deep snow. I would take 2 steps foward and slip 1 step backwards. It was tough but I headed straight up the hill. As I got closer, the pitch lessened a little and the lookout was in sight. The mountain has an elevation of 5719'. I got there at 11:30 and I could see 100's of peaks in all directions. I took about a half hour break before heading back down. It was a lot easier and I got back to my truck at 2:30. If the avy conditions were risky I wouldn't have tried this one.
Trip stats-9 miles, 5200 elevation gain in 7.5 hours.
mountains and the steep slope Lookout Mountain 5719' near the top El Dorado more North Cascade peaks to the southeast more North Cascade peaks to the northeast green moss on the lower part of the trail
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Highwalker's Daughter Member
Joined: 12 Aug 2006 Posts: 1575 | TRs | Pics Location: Bothell, WA |
Great pictures! It's interesting to see it in the winter as I've been there only in the summer. Thanks for sharing.
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EastKing Surfing and Hiking
Joined: 28 Mar 2007 Posts: 2082 | TRs | Pics Location: 77 miles from Seattle! |
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EastKing
Surfing and Hiking
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Sun Feb 08, 2009 1:47 am
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Great TR and photos!! Looked like great fun!! Is Lookout glissadable??
YouTube | SummitPost
Saw the depths of despair. Now I am salvaging what time I have left on Earth.
YouTube | SummitPost
Saw the depths of despair. Now I am salvaging what time I have left on Earth.
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Magellan Brutally Handsome
Joined: 26 Jul 2006 Posts: 13116 | TRs | Pics Location: Inexorable descent |
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Magellan
Brutally Handsome
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Sun Feb 08, 2009 9:00 am
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Very nice work. Heckuva an effort!
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Tazz Member
Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 7902 | TRs | Pics
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Tazz
Member
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Sun Feb 08, 2009 9:06 am
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great day for this one! Eldorado needs more snow!
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Gabigabs Trail Breaker
Joined: 07 Nov 2007 Posts: 841 | TRs | Pics Location: Seattle |
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Gabigabs
Trail Breaker
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Sun Feb 08, 2009 11:22 am
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Beautiful day to be outside ang gorgeous pics. Thanks for sharing.
Life is simple... Eat, Sleep, Hike!
Life is simple... Eat, Sleep, Hike!
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Schmidt Alti-Dude 4th class poster
Joined: 06 Jul 2007 Posts: 1361 | TRs | Pics Location: Looking for Adventure 201! |
Anything stated by me in no way reflects the attitudes or opinions of my wife
Anything stated by me in no way reflects the attitudes or opinions of my wife
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Opus Wannabe
Joined: 04 Mar 2006 Posts: 3700 | TRs | Pics Location: The big rock candy mountain |
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Opus
Wannabe
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Sun Feb 08, 2009 3:20 pm
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Very cool! Did you go inside the tower? Is this one open during the winter?
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raising3hikers Member
Joined: 21 Sep 2007 Posts: 2344 | TRs | Pics Location: Edmonds, Wa |
Opus-The tower was locked but I could see inside and there were sleeping bags set up. Looks like it would be a fun place to stay the night.
EastKing-It was too steep in my opion to glissade without an area that leveled off at the bottom. Nothing to stop me except a few trees if I couldn't stop myself. I had to play it safe. On some similar slopes, I could tell that there were some small avalanches from a while back and I didn't want to set one off on my path.
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Josh Journey a.k.a Josh Lewis
Joined: 01 Nov 2007 Posts: 4836 | TRs | Pics
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Nice photos! Looks great!
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ericrjensen Member
Joined: 12 Oct 2008 Posts: 58 | TRs | Pics
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Very cool! I was there in the summer with my brother and we stayed in the lookout, it was the most comfortable night I've had in the mountains, I highly recommend it.
It was quite a hike up there this summer, I was exhausted, I imagine that it would be that much more difficult in winter, nice work!
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