Dates: June 30 – July 1, 2007
Party: Matt, Mike T, Fay P, Beth B
Destination: Hozomeen North Summit 8066 via Sunrise 2 trail and Hozomeen Ridge
If you’ve ever looked up the east shore of Ross Lake, you can’t miss Hozomeen. It’s distinctive double summit rises in prominent isolation at the north end of the lake. I’ve always thought its steep dark rocky south faces looked rather lonely and inhospitable, but the north side turned out to be quite congenial for this trip.
Highlights of the trip:
We took the longer but more scenic approach via the Sunrise 2 trail to Hozomeen Ridge.
Our beautiful camp sat on Hozomeen Ridge, with views 2000 feet up to Hozomeen, 4000 feet down to Ross Lake, and miles out to the Pickets & Chilliwack peaks..
The remainder of the ridge to the base of Hozomeen added a thousand feet of extra ups and downs.
The route on Hozomeen was in great shape – connected snowfields let us kick steps almost to the top and avoid the steep rock sections.
Driving from Lynnwood up to Canada and around to the Skyline 2 trailhead (1700 feet) took about 4 hours. We breezed through customs, while the line going the other way stretched a mile and a half in to Canada. There are two routes to get to the north side of Hozomeen. The more common route bushwhacks along the border cut, which shorter but generally unpleasant traveling. We took the longer route, hiking the Skyline 2 trail to Hozomeen Ridge, then following the Hozomeen Ridge trail south toward the peak. The trail had pros and cons. The pros are: The trail tread is wide and smooth, making for easy walking. The higher parts of the trail traverse meadows with pretty flowers and broad views. The cons are: The smooth walking is interrupted by scores of downed trees in its lower sections. The low-angled trail grade takes a long time winding around to get to its destination. Even with the downed trees, I enjoyed walking on a trail for a change. It was a relaxing change of pace from all the cross-country approaches lately. Higher up, the views opened out to show Ross Lake below and Hozomeen ahead (or sometimes behind because the darned trail kept wandering off in the wrong direction)
The higher meadows had a fascinating variety of unfamiliar east-side flowers. There was a surprising mix of flowers I’d normally associate with relatively wetter or drier climates, dozens of different species, shifting with the aspect and elevation of the terrain.
When the trail finally reached the crest of Hozomeen Ridge, we followed the smaller but still very clear ridge-top trail southward for about half a mile. We found a wonderful campsite atop the first distinct bump on the ridge (approx 6100 feet), about fifty feet uphill from the trail. Out tent door looked out straight south to Hozomeen, where the route appeared to be in great shape. Our dining area sat on a hillside looking all the way down to Ross Lake, and way out to the Chilliwack Peaks and the Pickets. There weren’t even more than a few occasional bugs. Altogether the approach was about 8 miles, 6.5 hours, 4400 net gain, 4900 cumulative gain.
I took a nap in the early evening, then made dinner and stayed up to watch the sunset.
In the morning I got up to watch the sunrise, which lit up the peaks even better than the sunset.
We departed camp at 5:50am, and followed the ridge trail southward a couple miles to get to the base of Hozomeen. The little ridge-top trial led us the whole way, sometimes disappearing into snow patches, but then re-appearing again, merrily winding its way across the ridge and up and down the bumps. Lots of up and down. In fact, a full thousand feet of extra ups and downs.
First we walked down and up to the next higher forested bump on the ridge. Then we dropped to 5900 and had to climb up over the distinct high point at 6500. We tried traversing around this point but got cliffed out; just following the ridge over the summit works better; we found the trail again coming down the far side.
Then back down again, where we found the aluminum border obelisk, Monument 74, at 5800 feet. From the monument, we could clearly see the border cut running east toward Castle, and also further away west climbing up from Ross Lake toward Rahm. Then it was uphill again to the 6000-foot closed contour, down to the col at 5800, and finally we could traverse out into the huge snow-filled basin below Hozomeen, two hours after leaving camp.
Snow conditions made the route up Hozomeen relatively easy for us. Later in the year, the middle and upper snowfields are barricaded by rock steps, and parties have to climb either the NW corner (righthand skyline, 3rd & 4th class) or NE ridge (lefthand skyline, lots of 4th class), all unprotectable. We were able to follow a snow finger from the lower to middle snowfield and then exit the middle snowfield at its upper righthand corner, high enough to bypass almost all the steep terrain of the NW corner. We had about 50 feet of 3rd and 4th class rock, then easier terrain up to the flat summit, 8066 feet. Camp to summit was about 3.5 miles, 2000 net gain, 3000 cumulative gain, 5 hours.
The summit provided wide views, but was also very windy, so we alternated between looking over the edges at the views and huddling next to the big summit cairn to eat lunch and hide from the wind. I was both impressed and appalled at the view of the nasty route Mike, Fay, and Beth had climbed up South Hozomeen last year, the only party to sign the register for 13 years.
For summit views, Ross Lake stretched far southward below us, and the Pickets and Chilliwack peaks formed a long crest above it.
Pushed by the wind and the long trip back, we departed after half an hour. The summit cairn had a big piece of wood sticking out of it that someone must have hauled up the mountain. Before we departed, Engineer Mike worked to improve the cairn and straighten out the post.
Descending the rock crest was more intimidating than ascending. Its convex shape made it scary as the angle steepened. We all slowly picked our way back down to the snow, and then made rapid time down the snow, even trying a few glissades.
Then we just resigned ourselves to another 1100 feet of extra ups and downs and trotted along over all the intervening high points. Atop Point 6500, you could look back and just barely make out the summit cairn on Hozomeen. With each successive bump, the terrain transitioned to less and snow and rock and more meadows and forest. We arrived back at camp at 2:55pm, about 7 miles round trip, 2000 net gain, 4400 cumulative gain, 9 hours.
Fay and Beth were staying an extra night in camp so that they could relax and enjoy the area. Mike and I needed to be back for work and kids, so we packed up and departed at 3:45 to hike out. A high overcast had covered the sky, which kept the temperatures cooler and made softer light for the flowers, but also brought out more bugs, which had been mercifully few during most of the trip. To amuse myself in the forest, I counted 131 fallen trees on the trail. Actually we bypassed a few known bad spots by cutting switchbacks, so I had to estimate the count for those. We still made good time, reaching the trailhead at 7:30pm, 8 miles, 330 gain, 3:45 hours for the hike out.
Hereinafter follow the requisite statistics and list obsessions:
The total trip was about 23 miles, 9600 gain.
Hozomeen ranks as #20 of the most prominent peaks in Washington, with 3933 feet of prominence (#50 of 149 Washington peaks over 2000 feet prominence for me).
Hozomeen ranks as #172 of Washington’s highest peaks (#28 on the second hundred highest for me).
Hereinafter follows the mandatory Kerouac quote included in every trip report about Hozomeen:
“Hozomeen, Hozomeen. most beautiful mountain I ever seen ... but what a horror when I first saw that void the first night of my stay on Desolation Peak, waking up from deep fogs of 20 hours to a starlit night suddenly loomed by Hozomeen with his two sharp points, right in my window black..."
And now for a less common Kerouac quote on Hozomeen: "O God I'm bored! But is Hozomeen bored? And I'm sick of words and explanations. Is Hozomeen?"
Indeed, that's probably enough words and explanations about Hozomeen.
The experience of Hozomeen left me quite well entertained and satisfied, not bored at all.
-------------- "Matt, you are truly full of it. But you take great --- pics, in spite of that." Scrooge
Wow! Thanks for one of the best trip reports I have ever read. I really felt like I was there, even being nervous on the rock. I can't even decide which picture is my favorite, although I am leaning towards the Pickets. Thanks for sharing this special place.
Joined: 02 Mar 2002 Posts: 1901 | TRs | Pics Location: ex Kennewick, Wa & Lehi Utah
Wed Jul 11, 2007 9:56 am
I've got 50 of the Washington p2k's but not any like Hozomeen. Awesome report and pics and congrat's on getting a tough peak. Congrat's to the rest of your group and especially Fay, she never ceases to amaze me.
From your report it sounds a lot easier than I'm sure it was.
Actually it was easier than it looks. Most of the views of the north face look very steep, because you're looking at it straight on from a distance. But when you get right up to it, it lays back a lot. On snow, we only had to face in and kick steps directly upward for about a hundred feet. The rest we could kick switchbacks. Beyond that, the rock was indeed steep for the first 50 feet, then laid back a lot. The pictures below show the difference in apearance from afar and up close.
Rigafari wrote:
Nice work!!! I wonder if those cliff bands fill in during winter?????
I'm sure the route is totally snow-covered in winter.
seawallrunner wrote:
Say Matt, where did you start your Skyline 2 hike? From the Silver-Skagit logging road, or from Lightning Lakes in Manning Park?
We started from Silver-Skagit, in Skagit Valley Provincial Park.
Dang, is there anything along the way I don't have a photo of?
-------------- "Matt, you are truly full of it. But you take great --- pics, in spite of that." Scrooge
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum You cannot attach files in this forum You can download files in this forum
Congrat's to the rest of your group and especially Fay, she never ceases to amaze me. 
