[ikell]

Red Mountain (Commonwealth Basin) This was actually my first winter climb, and I enjoyed it immensely. So I wanted to post this for others considering this as a winter snowshoe/ski/climb, and some of the pix were cool (esp Mt. Thomson). This was back on Feb 5, it was a beautiful sunny day. It had snowed a few days prior, but the avalanche danger at the time was low, especially on the south/east face of Red Mtn. Scott and I hiked and snowshoed from the pass, a bunch of skiiers were also around Red Mtn. On the way back, the basin was positively mobbed by weekend snowshoers. Equipment for red: We just used snowshoes until the final steep face, then just postholed and used an ice axe. No crampons needed in that snow.

View of the approach up Commonwealth Basin. Red Mountain is the sunny ridge peak on the right, Lundin Peak on the left.

View south toward Snoqualmie Mtn

Mount Thomson to the northeast (foreground) with the Lemah/Chimney/Overcoat (?) ramparts farther north.

Scott took this of me gingerly approaching the top of Red Mtn, careful to avoid the cornices to the north/east

[Bryan K]

Good looking day. Glad you were careful at the summit, a cornice on the east side took the life of a skier last year. Be careful out there and have fun!

[ikell]

Thanks, I happened to read about that right before we went, so we were extra careful.

[Mosquito Food]

I really like that shot ot Thomson. Great job!

[Nate]

Hey, I was considering snowshoeing up to commonwealth basin / red pass sometime soon as well. I know you did this over a month ago, but were you were able to follow the summer trail pretty easily, or did you have to follow the creek on the way up? Awesome job by the way, if I tried it, I wouldn't want to summit Red Mtn., the pass would be good enough for me

[summithound]

It really depends on the day. When I did Red there were packed snowshoe trails following both the creek and the PCT. The longer you wait after a big snowfall the more likely you are to encounter this scenario. The creekside trail is usually the first to see footsteps as it's a more direct route to the basin. Once in the basin your chances of finding a packed trail up to the pond below Red decrease but are still relatively good at the tail end of a nice weekend. From there to Red Pass your odds are even lower still. Good luck!

[ikell]

Here's a summary of our route... We left the pass early on a sunny Saturday, and did have some trouble route finding on the way up into Commonwealth Basin. First we were chased away from the little private ski area from parking around their slopes, so we parked on the east side of the freeway overpass and walked along the road until just past the overpass we could see where the summertime parking lot / trailhead was to the right. We went up the steep early section to the east of the little ski area, but got lost a few times, there are just many "braided" rabbit trails of snowshoe paths and skiier routes. Once you get into Commonwealth Basin, we next made a minor mistake of crossing the creek (left toward Guy Pk) on that snow-covered log bridge, but quickly decided the trail was not what we needed for Red. So we back-tracked across the bridge and followed the now obvious main trail along the east side of Commonwealth Creek at the foot of Kendall. Rather than re-cross the creek and follow the valley bottom, we stayed to the right/north along the base of Kendall, and eventually the trail petered out in a big meadow in a gully/valley that separates Kendall from Red. So we struck out up and to the left, along the base of the clearings on the south shoulder of Red, making for the little pond and Red Pass. We eventually found the "main" trail on this little ridge and followed it up to the obvious southwest facing triangle slope that most people climb and ski on Red. The pass would be just a little farther up/left. Hope this helps... On the way back we partially bushwacked down the valley, mostly staying on various weaving "rabbit" trails of snowshoe routes, knowing where we had to get to. This is where the hordes of people starting really showing up.