[Dayhike Mike]

My dad and I set off to see how high we could get on Wedge Mountain and try to get some views up the Snow Creek valley this weekend. Got a good early start, leaving Wenatchee around 7:00am and ran into our first snag as we tried going up Mountain Home Road from SR97(Blewett Pass) -- there was snow and ice at 1400' that soon became nigh impassable as we headed up into less-travelled portions. Turned around, and came in from the Leavenworth side. We made it to a little over 2000' before the County maintained portion ended. Set off from here at 8:30am. Took an hour to travel a little over 3 miles and reach the saddle (2725') where we'd originally planned on starting from. Headed straight up the ridge to a bench of earth just over 3200 ft. Weather-wise, things were starting to get nice, the morning's clouds were starting to break up, the sun was poking through from time to time and we had some great views of the Entiat Mountains and Chumstick to the north and of Burch Mountain and the Wenatchee Valley to the east. From here on up, there was no way to avoid the snow. Found that our best bet for movement was following tracks left by snowmobilers...their tracks were compressed enough to avoid breaking through the surface and postholing repeatedly. So we stuck to the road and wandered another 2 miles up the road to just above 4000'. At this point, the number of snowmobilers had dwindled and the snow wasn't quite as well packed. We decided we'd had our fun and turned around at 11:45. Sun was out in full force on the way back. I got a touch of sunburn and some great shots of Wedge Mountain and the wispy clouds whipping overhead. Got our first gust of wind about a mile from the car, and noticed that clouds had again enshrouded Wedge mountain, as well as descending upon the Icicle Canyon and Entiat Mountains... Looked like anyone in the mountains Northwest of us was in for quite a storm. Reached the truck at 2pm and headed home in relative comfort. 10 miles roundtrip, 2000 foot elevation gain, 3:15 in, 2:15 out. Overall a good way to spend a few hours of spare time.

[Dayhike Mike]

And...the obligatory pics.

Sun, snow, and sky. One of the false summits of Wedge mountain under mists at far right.

Looking back.