[moosefish]

Like a bunch of others, we were out Thursday night to take advantage of the moonlight. The plan was pretty simple. Meet up with the TNAB Lunatics, hike toward Annette Lake, summit Silver Peak, marvel at the views, come down, go to bed. Great plan. Lousy execution. The group was Carla, Mark, Chris, and Jeff. We left the trailhead a little after 6pm. When we stopped to put on crampons, right at the actual Annette Lake trailhead, Dan and Larry met us on the way out. The trail was uber-icy, but everyone other than Jeff had crampons and an axe. Shortly we were at the gully we wanted to follow to the summit. At the top of the first chute we crossed back into the trees and traversed while climbing slowly until we came to the next open slope. Once again we turned straight up and kicked our way toward the summit. Unfortunately, time, sore heels, and a desire to be conscious at work the next day conspired to convince us we ought to turn back. We were at about 4,500 feet and about 1,000 feet short of the summit. We figured it'd take us at least another hour to get to the top and we were already about two and a half hours in. Looking down I elected to swap poles for axe. I had taken no more than a few steps in the awkward crampons (my first time using them) when one of my heel points caught the crust and I started to fall. It always amazes me that after only one time practicing self-arrest techniques most of the concepts come flashing back when they are needed. I wound up sliding about 15 feet down slope before I came to a stop with my pick buried in the snow. Good times. I got up and started down again. I realized that if I stepped first with my heel and broke through the crust I'd be in better shape... mostly. I had another fall and another arrest that again reassured me that I could handle myself on a fairly decent pitch. As we cut through the trees I did pretty well and I didn't fall at all on the second slope. Jeff, unimpeded by crampons, did a sitting glissade down much of the second slope making me almost consider taking off my crampons to follow him. Back near the bottom of the slope where we would pick up the trail for the slog out we carved seats in the snow and sat down. I broke out the hot chocolate, but Mark trumped it with birthday cupcakes for Carla. In addition to the sugar hit there were beers and a bottle of Wild Turkey that somehow was mostly consumed by the time we left. The "snow moon" was majestic as it lit up the slope we had struggled up in the dark and Humpback Mountain was bright to the west. After about 45 minutes we all began to get chilled. We left the moonlit slope and entered into the dark woods. The snow had hardened significantly since we passed through a few hours earlier and Jeff had a harder time without crampons. Of course, even with crampons I went down (after I'd put away my axe, of course) and started sliding down a small hill. Back came the training and I dug in my toes and popped back to a standing position. SWEET! At a series of switchbacks we left the trail to cut off some distance by heading straight down. It was a blast heading down the slope instead of up or even traversing, but we started to get a little antsy when the trail didn't reappear. I was sure it was below us as we started looking for the trail in earnest. Chris was leading and headed down and to the north. When the contours turned to the northeast we headed more down on the assumption that we had to run into the trail eventually. Yeah... right. Jeff took the lead at a little creek crossing and started back up the hill while traversing. We had to bash through some brush, but amazingly we found the trail ABOVE us, not below us. Dang. Oh well, now we were back on the trail. We continued on the trail making good time until we came to another set of switchbacks below the Iron Horse. With a pretty good idea of what was ahead I charged down the hill cutting switchbacks. The slope petered out and I wandered through a mostly flat area until I ran into Humpback Creek... except I needed to know where the bridge was. Clearly the bridge must be upstream so I started following the creek to the south. Of course, after a while the others came to their senses and reined me in. We headed downstream, which I was sure was wrong. We'd wind up at the South Fork and then we'd have to follow that downstream to an unbridged crossing of Humpback Creek. That's when I'd chuckle under my breath and think, "I told you so." All was going well until we found the trail. WHA?! Happy I hadn't been more adamant the bridge was upstream, I followed the rest of the crew down toward the cars, stopping only to try to shoot some pictures of Humpback Creek from the bridge. In the trailhead parking lot the moon was so bright it was like being under the night skiing lights at Snoqualmie Pass, but without the threat of being run down by a snowboarder. (Of course, there might have been a bear or jaguar or something, but I think snowboarders are more dangerous.) Only a few minutes later we were back at the cars and 15 minutes after that I was at home. It was just before midnight and just after midnight after I took the trash out to the paved street. Totals were 5.26 miles and 2,664 feet of gain. Both of these numbers are from TOPO and don't take into account our detours as we went off-trail, but it's probably pretty accurate. We peaked out, so to speak, at 4,541 feet. The summit was 1,064 feet above us at 5,605.

Mostly the same, but a little fluffier trip report is here.

[Bryan K]

I love your pics, wish I could have joined you guys, but my lack of crampons and an axe would have impeded my progress. I need an axe and some self arrest training which did wonders for you. Thanks for the TR

[Yana]

[moosefish]

Sadly, I had to get up for work at 5am so coming down and going to bed was a bit of a requirement for me. I was in bad shape about 4pm the next day. Caffeine propped me up for most of the morning, but it fell flat in the afternoon.

[Mesahchie Mark]

Thanks for posting the TR, Moosefish! I missed your self-arrest, but I did notice you were sending down large chunks of icy snow on the descent - oof, those suckers pack a punch! Where's the pic of dicey's b-day cupcake? Going in, I had no illusions that we'd actually summit this night. Getting to Silver from the Lake Annette TH is hard enough in ideal conditions. But with us clanking around in our crampons like rusty suits or armor right from the beginning, I'm pleased we got as far as we did.

[dacker]

Wow...all that off-trail stuff in the woods at night could easily have turned into an epic. Glad to hear you got back on track and came out safely in good time.

[Magellan]

[moosefish]

[Mesahchie Mark]

[Jeff R]

[moosefish]

Sorry, Jeff. I didn't mean to imply you were the reason we turned back. I certainly didn't have any issue with turning back when we did.

[dicey]

I thought we turned back because certain people (not me, of course ) had to work the next day! I think we also figured out how to get Jeff to start posting again!

[Mesahchie Mark]

Hehe - if Jeff had been "properly" equipped, he would have been waiting for us on the summit! I'll take the blame for turning around when we did, mostly because my boss has this irrational idea I should be at work by a certain time. Like I mentioned elsewhere, I should've just called in sick...

[moosefish]

So true. The only other time I hiked with Jeff was on another TNAB trip. I kept up ok on Tinkham (thanks mostly to Jeff waiting for his even slower friend), but had no chance when he headed up Abiel. Perhaps the biggest insult was that my dog stuck with Jeff rather than me. (Not that she's ever had an issue abandoning me in favor of a faster hiker before...)