[moosefish]

The plan was really to do an overnight on Mt. St. Helens, but the weather forecast was worse than lousy. Rain low, snow high, wind that would make it less than enjoyable. So we looked for a slightly sheltered spot on the east side and decided to go to Mission Peak. It was a short trip, but still fun to do a rare (once a year for me) winter camp. Saturday we had decent weather until the early afternoon when the storm that had forced us to change from Mt. St. Helens moved in and stole the limited views we had. In spite of the weather, and snowmobilers, three of us had a good time tagging Mission Peak and retreating to a sheltered camp above Marion Lake.

Blue!

Toward Wenatchee

Leaving camp

Mission Peak

Go sun go!

Scott

Tops

Nice trench

Sunday the weather wasn't as nice, but we were less than two miles from the Mission Ridge parking lot and made quick work descending all the way first to Marion and then along the Squilchuck trail.

"Sunrise"

Camp

Characterless

The hardest part of the trip was fighting traffic on the way home. Chains required outside of Easton and avalanche control work along Keechelus added at least an hour to the ride. Blech. Special kudos to the two guys who opted out to spend extra time with their wives in special circumstances. It shows real character to give up a weekend in the snow for family. (Maybe one day I'll have that kind of character, too. )

[Scrooge]

Brrrr! I remember crouching down in that righthand notch to eat my lunch, 'cause there was a cold wind blowing, even in early Fall.

[wildernessed]

A nice spot on a blue sky day, great early summer ! Mission Peak can be a nasty weather mountain. Thanks for the pics, we were looking at maybe looping up from Stemilt basin and doing Naneum Point, Wenatchee Mountain, Mission Peak, and looping back down the Squilchuck trail.

[Dean]

Nice report and pics. I hope you don't mind but I attached a link to this thread on my summitpost page about Mission Peak.

[moosefish]

[Go Jo]