[thesnorkeler]

I've never posted a trip report before, but I thought this might be useful. I left a packed parking lot behind me at 10:30 am and headed up. The trail was a little damp, but no serious mud. It was pretty warm, too. I immediately stripped down to a T Shirt and stayed that way all day. I encountered about 3 mosquitoes, so it looks like they're coming back for the summer. After 3 miles or so, the trail turned to snow. It was pretty well packed down, but still slippery. A lot of people had ice spikes on their shoes, and those looked like they were a hit. (I tried to get some that morning, but I couldn't wait 1/2 hr for the Seattle REI to open!) There were quite a few people on the trail, but I was really surprised when I came out of the trees. The top was covered in snow, but all the rocky areas were covered with people. There's only one thing to do in that sitation--go higher! So I headed over to the scramble area. The snow got deeper on the way there, and before I realized it, I was going up toward the saddle. I've never seen that area with snow on it before. It went all the way to the saddle, with the rocks poking out here and there. There were 3 guys coming down, who had gone up with sticks to poke in the snow. I'm not gonna judge them, because I have no idea what their abilities are--but I wouldn't be caught dead on that thing without my ice ax! 3/4 of the way up I ran into a guy with two dogs. Maybe I'm just a weenie, or maybe its a miracle that more people don't die up there. Then I ran into a group of 4 guys who were just sticking their arms into the snow as they climbed down! Anyway, I got to the saddle and saw that amazing view of North Bend that appears as your head pokes over the top. But of course, that's not quite the tippy top. The tippy top required climbing some wet rock on the edge of the drop. And even though I've done it many times, it always scares me. I was pretty sure I was gonna die for a few seconds, but I got up there. I was alone for a couple minutes before another guy came up. I figured I might as well go down while I was still jacked up on adrenaline, so I left him to enjoy it. The trip back down involved 3 falls on my butt because I was tired and the snow/slush was slippery. And it took quite a while to get down largely because of the volume of people heading up! All in all it was a great trip, and my question of whether it's too soon to climb Si this year has been answered. I'm using Flicr for the first time, and it reeeeeally slooooow! I tried twice to upload all of the pics of this trip, and waited about 20 minutes each time. It didn't get them all, but at least there are some!

That's where I'm going!

Trail condition after 3 miles or so.

The summit, (sort of)

Climbing up to the saddle

From the scramble

Bad place to fall!

East(ish) from the scramble

Two dogs!!

Up up up!

From the saddle

North Bend from the saddle

That's the wet rock you have to climb on the edge of the drop to get up the Haystack! It scared the crap out of me.

The top of the Haystack!!

Down there is where most of the people accumulate.

There are some good lookin' people up here!

Down I-90 from the Haystack

Back to my truck in one piece!

[gone]

Great report, can't wait to see the pics! It sure was a beautiful day to be there. We headed up the Old Si trail, from the Little Si trailhead. It was equally packed, with the parking lot flowing over to the bridge construction site and every other empty nook and cranny. Once we turned off onto the Old Si trail, though, we didn't see maybe a half dozen people until we got back to the Little Si trail. I've only ever made the top of Mt. Si a handful of times, and I've never proceeded up haystack or any other scrambles. Hats off to ya! It's just too dang'd hair-raising for me to even contemplate. I've seen some of those same odd and/or ill-prepared folks heading for the tippy top and wondered why more folks don't die up there every year. Crazy! Glad you made it down safely!

[tigermn]

Solve the slipping and sliding problems on packed down/icy or slippery trails like Si especially. They shine best on ice/harder surfaces, but also help in softer snow too. http://www.kahtoola.com/microspikes.html Or you could always go with the standby Yaktrax which work well for a lot of people. I just couldn't get mine to stay on properly and they definitely aren't as well constructed as the Kahtoola's. The drawback is the Kahtoola's are more expensive, but hey if that saves me a broken something.... Worth it.

[thesnorkeler]

Wow, those things are gnarly!