[dicey]

Today was another successful chapter in my recent run of cleaning up peaks I have attempted but not gotten to the top of. Friday the 13th, eek! As the weather forecast tanked for Friday, our group of interested hikers dwindled, as did our list of options for places to go. In the end, we decided it looked like it would rain nearly anywhere we chose to go, so we may as well get rained on closer rather than farther away. We also decided that an earlier start would help in avoiding the worst of the weather, and boy did that pay off!! Yana and I met ErinB and Kosmic (dog) at Eastgate and we were off by 6:30am. We decided to risk the gate closure warning (does it ever close?)and parked right at the beginning of Dirty Harry's abandoned logging road. We were walking by 7:10am. Skies were overcast and threatening but we expected as much. Where the trail crosses Museum creek we headed right (east) up the faint and steep, but very flagged bootpath. At one point early on, I detected a light snow flurry, but it ceased after about 25 flakes. The ridge becomes defined and easy to follow, but also steep and rocky in places requiring some traversing mostly to the north side with a couple of short south side forays. The recent snowfall amounted to a light dusting on the ground and in the trees below 4k. Higher up in the open areas there was a few inches of powder over an older, somewhat icy snowpack. Quite a substantial decrease in the snowpack from a couple of months ago, but the snow seemed more consolidated and easier to travel on today. We left the snowshoes in the car, so I was counting on consolidation. At one point along the ridge, we put on crampons and started using our ice axes to avoid slipping on the hard icy snow below the powder, and before long arrived at the rocky section on the ridge that was my turn around point before. This time, consolidation was our friend and we scrambled over the rocks and didn't fall into the spaces between them Kosmic didn't like this rock scrambling part too much, but encouragement and the leash got him through ok. By the time we reached the summit (10:50am) the clouds were lowering on the middle fork peaks, obscuring their summits. We had a snack and headed down after 20 minutes or so. Going back was predictably faster and easier than heading up, and we were back at Museum creek by 1ish. Not being a fan of the abandoned logging road, I concocted a plan to avoid it on the way down and do a loop. Everyone seemed agreeable and it was still fairly early in the day, so we decided to extend our hike a little. We took the balcony trail and had another snack up there, then we hiked out the birdhouse trail (saw 5, are there more?) which winds around up and down and eventually spits you out where the road crosses the river. We had to hike back up the road to the car, but we all agreed this was a much more pleasant, although longer way to return. Also, neither Yana, or Erin had been to DH Balcony before, so this was a bonus! A pleasant day, with only minor sprinkles of rain on the way out. I think we were back at eastgate by 3:45, so we didn't even have to deal with any traffic driving back to Seattle I'm not sure of the stats of this trip, but maybe Yana will post them later. I didn't take any pics, but Yana took some with my camera, so here ya go

web ridge

web summit

web ridge 2

web summit 2

PS, I've not been writing trip reports lately but usually keep my flickr site up to date with pics here

[Tazz]

ooooh I like that ridge!!! thanks for the report!

[Yana]

[Tazz]

oh I am liking web more and more now!! web summit 2 is a great shot!!

[Layback]

Okay Dicey - You win the award for getting out more than any one else on Fridays. Nice pics. Looks like a good trip.

[Tazz]

she gets out more than anyone else period

[ErinB]

Please no one say we missed the 6th birdhouse or we will have to go back and redeem ourselves! That rocky ridge looks so much nicer with blue skies...hurry up sunny days! Thanks to both of you for choosing the perfect mountain for yesterday and for being such fun to hike with!

[Beave]

Nice TR Dicey. Glad you guys were able to score some views. When Randy and I went we could barely tell we were on the summit it was so cloudy.

[dacker]

I'll bet Yana appreciated that early start time!

[ree]

Looks like fun!

[Yana]