[ericrjensen]

After the disappointment on the Lake Serene trail last week I decided to get some fresh mountain air. Inspired by Ragman and Rodman's trip a few weeks ago I chose to go for a Saturday jaunt up Arrowhead Mountain. After hitting up the Jamba Juice for some oats and fruit from my brother I headed out Highway 2 and was to the turnout around 9:45. There was one other car at the turnout and he had skis so I was excited to have the hill to myself! Following, more or less, the same route that Ragman and Rodman mapped out I followed the train tracks east along the foot of the mountain for about a mile.

Tracks

Tracks

At what I thought to be about a mile I headed straight up the icy slope. The snow was packed and crusty all the way and the hill was steep as anything gaining about 2200 ft in likely under 2 miles. I wore my snowshoes most all the way for traction. Once I had reached the ridge and the sun was on me it was warm (I would guess 45 to maybe 50 degrees although I'm not very accurate usually when it comes to that) and the snow was much softer. I added the flotation tails onto my Denali snowshoes within the next quarter mile. On the ridge the views started to open up through the trees and I was feeling great to be back up in the mountains after a month or two hiatus!

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I could also see the destination, Arrowhead Mountain, looming and was excited about the ridge walk ahead of me.

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The walk up to the peak went smoothly other than a little bit of fatigue. Once I reached the summit any weariness dissolved quickly as I soaked in the sheer bliss of near 360 degree views! I hadn't hiked a lot in the winter prior to this trip and having never seen the Cascades in the winter from such a perspective it was pretty exciting to see the snowcapped peaks stretching in all directions.

Jim Hill-Glacier Peak Pano.jpg

Other Pano.jpg

Glacier Peak

Jim Hill Mountain [img]http://lh6.ggpht.com/_0W4cf_aC6eY%20

Tracks from the summit

Ahhhhh

a happy man

On the way down I took quite a few more pictures than on the way up and the trip down was pretty uneventful so I'll just post some of them.

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Some of you asked about the parking situation there on the last trip so I took a picture of the turn out. There was plenty of room for me to park comfortably without worrying about being taking out by passing traffic. Probably room for four cars or so.

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7.5 mi round trip, 3500 ft gain

[bobbi]

glad you had a successful outing! that's was great about this forum...getting ideas from other members like R & R. btw: your snowshoe photo can be posted here (shoe shots thread), in case you didn't know it exists!

[Go Jo]

Way to take advantage of the sunshine, thanks for the TR.

[wamtngal]

Nice! I was in a group of 3 that was in the area yesterday as well...what time did you summit?

[ericrjensen]

[wildernessed]

Good destination, nice views !

[cartman]

Nice pics. I might be the only person on this site who hasn't done this peak.

[GeoTom]

Love those views of the Chiwaukums (In your 'Other Pano'). And cartman, what are you waiting for?

[Bryan K]

[bobbi]

[cartman]

[Tazz]

well then get a license and a car and pay it forward mr!

[puzzlr]

Looks like a nice trip. Gotta do this sometime this winter.

[ericrjensen]

[rdyhiker]