Joined: 31 Oct 2004 Posts: 5828 | TRs | Pics Location: Conspiring in the Man Cave.
Mon Mar 03, 2008 12:01 pm
Map : GTM - Wenatchee Lake, TOPO custom
Access : We parked about a mile West of the Maintainence facility along Rt. 2 then headed up to and followed the tracks back East.
Stats : 8 mi, 3467', 6.5 r/t
Resource : Steve Fox's Winter Summits
I had been wanting to do this peak since last year when I saw Trailpair et al TR, they had totally blue skies . We had a weather window Sunday so hoped for the best. Matt, GeoTom / Jasper, Justus, Steve, and I managed to all pull together and make a great day of it. What a group of mountain freaks. This was the first time I met Matt or GeoTom. Matt made it with some cold symptoms, I joked to him that I caught his crud via email virus. I woke up and had to take antihistamines and immodium , I was fine the night before, prior to his email. I took some extra Depends along
But anyhow, we ran the tracks back East nearly two miles, then taking the traditional route on some fairly well consolidated snow (weight dependent) made good time until we intersected the ridge at around 4100', a very smooth transition...
Once we hit the ridge it had some fresh powder on it, and the scenery began...
As we gained elevation the snow deepened and was beautifully wind sculpted...
GeoTom and Jasper were just smoking up the ridge and to the summit .
The weather we had hoped for didn't quite materialize as NOAA and others had forecasted, at least not right around our area, but we had good localized views, with some breaks here and there. Lunch was eaten, pictures taken, and a group of skiers suddenly came up from the West.
We departed leaving the cool summit and made our way down the ridge plunge stepping and snowshoe surfing back to the lower ridge, where Matt, Tom / Jasper, and Justus decided to take a different route down. Steve and I followed the ridge, took some more pics, then retraced our steps...
We took off the snowshoes once on the more consolidated snow, but I had to reapply mine, the snow had softened and every step I started postholing . We came out onto the tracks and could see the other guys up the tracks and we all made it back to the vehicles. Great trip, and nice to meet and get out with some new faces.
Joined: 11 May 2004 Posts: 2450 | TRs | Pics Location: giving cornices a wider berth
Mon Mar 03, 2008 12:34 pm
Didja spot any skiers on Jim Hill?
I was wondering what the parking situation was these days, since they are apparently ticketing cars parked at the maint. facility. I guess parking along 2 is ok?
I did see several cars parked in pullouts along the way, and wondered if any of them belonged to you guys.
I hate the walking next to the train tracks part of this trip, but the views up top are sure nice
-------------- I'm not always sure I like being older but being less stupid has advantages.
Joined: 19 May 2005 Posts: 2998 | TRs | Pics Location: Back to work
Mon Mar 03, 2008 12:37 pm
dicey wrote:
Didja spot any skiers on Jim Hill?
I was wondering what the parking situation was these days, since they are apparently ticketing cars parked at the maint. facility. I guess parking along 2 is ok?
I did see several cars parked in pullouts along the way, and wondered if any of them belonged to you guys.
I hate the walking next to the train tracks part of this trip, but the views up top are sure nice
dicey-
We did see a couple ski tracks descending from a ridge lower down on Jim Hill. Not sure if anyone actually got any good pictures of them though
We parked at a pullout on the north side of the highway, about a half-mile west of the WSDOT Berne facility. There is a wood power pole with some electrical boxes on it. It is located maybe a hundred yards west of milepost 72. No signs indicating not to park there, but who knows when that might change.
There was other parking another half mile west at a larger turnout on the south side of the highway.
Is this the little spot immediately past the concrete trestle where the RR crosses US2? I saw a little spur road there that looked plowed wide enough to park on last time thru.
Joined: 31 Oct 2004 Posts: 5828 | TRs | Pics Location: Conspiring in the Man Cave.
Mon Mar 03, 2008 2:46 pm
This is the trackback from the GPS showing where we were / parked / started. The parking was just a widened area on the berm, on the N side of the road.
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Could it be any worse?
. We had a weather window Sunday so hoped for the best. Matt, GeoTom / Jasper, Justus, Steve, and I managed to all pull together and make a great day of it. What a group of mountain freaks. This was the first time I met Matt or GeoTom. Matt made it with some cold symptoms, I joked to him that I caught his crud via email virus. I woke up and had to take antihistamines and immodium 
, I was fine the night before, prior to his email. I took some extra Depends along 
.
. We came out onto the tracks and could see the other guys up the tracks and we all made it back to the vehicles. Great trip, and nice to meet and get out with some new faces. 
Was there any felonious activity on the summit? Here's what it looked like about a year ago (via a rather interesting approach) 
