[puzzlr]

The trip was Sergio's idea and I jumped at the chance because I'd seen Hozomeen from Jack years ago and swore I'd go do it someday. Next decision was trail or swath (as in border). We decided on trail given the recent trail maintenance reported by cartman. He's right, the trail is in good shape, ALL THE ENDLESS NO-GAIN SWITCHBACKS ARE IN GREAT SHAPE. I was saved by an audiobook on my iPod. I don't know how Sergio managed to stay sane. Matt's report is good for facts, figures, flowers and other good stuff. We moved a little faster due to the lack of blowdown on the trail. We camped at Point 6350 with a primo view of the peak.

Skyline trailhead, Skagit Provincial Park. No fees!

Lower elevation skyline trail

Hozomeen from the Skyline trail

Skyline ridge. It's a long walk to Hozomeen from here, with lots of ups and downs.

Skyline ridge trail. Later in the day the brush was cleared for the Fat Dog 100 run.

Hozomeen ridge trail junction

Hozomeen ridge trail

Hozomeen ridge trail

Point 6350 camp

We got going at 7:30am with some morning mists hanging around the summits. The clouds provided shade as we made our way through the basin and toward the mountain. We both like rock scrambling and chose to stay on rock most of the way up. Contrary to my fears, the rock was solid -- hand and foot holds were secure and there wasn't much danger of party-induced rockfall beyond some pebbles.

Hozomeen from our camp at Point 6350

Hozomeen from Point 6350 showing the route we took up and down.

Where water flowed down the rocks it was slippery even when not steep, so we stuck to the dry rock. We ran into one short 20' 4th class step between the snowfields, but the holds were good. Other than that I can't say it's more than semi-exposed 3rd the rest of the way up. There are lots of ledges to rest on, but I'd advise gloves -- the rock is sharp. I've heard Hozomeen means "sharp rock", but Hitchman says it's Fraser Indian dialect for "twin peaks with a rocky depression between". I guess we've applied "twin peaks" to more than enough mountains to share vague naming practices with the Fraser Indians.

The precipitous west face

Hardest part of the day, a 20' step, but with solid holds.

The ledge system between snowfields

View up from the base of the upper snowfield. We scrambled the right skyline the entire way. Could have used the snow, but it we preferred a rock route on this beautiful day.

Steep but solid scrambling up the NNW ridge

Lots of holds, lots of ledges.

Ledge above the steep part of the ridge, below the easy summit scramble.

Hozomeen final summit ridge, just a walk-up

Summit cairn and broken pole. Who brought that up?

Hozomeen summit pano. Chilliwack mountains and Ross Lake

Hozomeen summit view with skyline route

Our descent route was mostly the same way, diverting to the remaining snow for a bit. Sergio had to reclimb 300' to retrieve poles he temporarily forgot he left -- did that in 20 minutes up and down while I ate lunch.

Sergio on ridge

Descending the NNW ridge

Descending the NNW ridge

Jumping the crack

Sergio on a 20 minute reclimb to retrieve forgotten trekking poles

Then it was the many miles on trail out. How many? Too many. And yeah, ALL THE ENDLESS NO-LOSS SWITCHBACKS ARE IN GREAT SHAPE. While we were camped and climbing the Fat Dog 100 race was conducted on the skyline trail. No thanks!

Grouse on the trail

Flags weren't there on our way up. They guide runners in the Fat Dog 100 race

Fat Dog 100 race flagging

Hozomeen

A final note on the so-called border swath route. The border swath goes up and down over a steep ridge between Hozomeen and Ross Lake. Taking this route does not mean walking up the swath. The reports I read said they never actually found the swath but went through forest. The "swath" route is much shorter, but expect to be doing a bushwhack from the lake up to the notch at 6350 (not point 6350). You then descend ~200' into the basin. Good luck with that.

[raising3hikers]

awesome trip and mountain! thanks for sharing

[RichP]

Very nice puzzlr. Your report makes me think I could do this peak someday.

[twodogdad]

Beautiful practice for the hard neighbors next door. N

[fourteen410]

[ree]

Amazing trip...! I'm so jealous. I'd love to get up into that area, and daresay, bag Hosermean. Were the bugs bad?

[Matt]

Glad you made it up with less snow this time of year. Nice illustrations of the route, and photos of the exposure.

[Magellan]

Very cool trip!

[Jim Dockery]

Thanks for an great TR and excellent pics that show the climb perfectly (esp. when clicking on full size - thanks for the big views) . I've been talking with friends about this and it looks sweet.

[n16ht5]

awesome awesome awesome!

[puzzlr]

I finally got around to cleaning up the summit register photos. These are all the pages as of July 27, 2013.

Hozomeen summit register

Hozomeen summit register

Hozomeen summit register

Hozomeen summit register

Hozomeen summit register

Hozomeen summit register

Hozomeen summit register

Hozomeen summit register

Hozomeen summit register

Hozomeen summit register

Hozomeen summit register

Hozomeen summit register

Hozomeen summit register