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Bernardo
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PostSat Aug 07, 2010 11:38 pm 
This being a Saturday in August, I'd been planning for some time to make a longer trip today. There were stars in the sky when I turned in last night so I was hoping the weather forecast would be wrong. But the clouds were low and heavy all the way to the Denny Creek Trailhead. Our goal was to head up to Melakwa Lake and then towards Melakwa Pass. We had time available so we would head to Kaleetan or Roosevelt depending on how we felt and possibly return via Gem and Snow Lake. Well, when we arrived at Melakwa at 8:40 and saw the fog, we knew that our day was going to be limited to exploring the upper Melakwa Valley and perhaps getting to Kaleetan. Without views a long journey didn't hold much appeal.
Outlet of Melkwa Lake.
Outlet of Melkwa Lake.
Chipmunk bag hung at Melakwa Lake.
Chipmunk bag hung at Melakwa Lake.
To reach the valley beyond Melakwa Lake head north along the west side of the lake then cross the outlet of Upper Melakwa Lake and follow the boot track on its east side. The route follows the stream that makes its way through the center of the valley. You pretty much walk in the stream to cut through a thick stand of trees above the upper lake and then you enter a rocky heaven with a few limpid tarns.
Typical Melakwa Valley terrain.
Typical Melakwa Valley terrain.
On cloudless days, Kaleetan looms up to the north west and Chair Peak guards the east entrance to the valley. I'd been up a gully to Kaleetan before, but I hadn't been up the gully closest to Melakwa Pass so I thought we'd try that today. We found the gully, but because we had very little visibility it was hard to pick a route with good long term potential.
Visibility conditions on the way up.
Visibility conditions on the way up.
We ended up on the right side and found the going too steep. We turned around and took a look over Melakwa pass and frozen Chair Peak Lake before heading back down to Melakwa Lake.
Melakwa Pass as seen from the north ridge.
Melakwa Pass as seen from the north ridge.
View of Chair Peak Lake from Melakwa Pass.
View of Chair Peak Lake from Melakwa Pass.
This recent Wright Mountain trip report by 1k has a nice photo of Melakwa Pass and Kaleetan as seen from the north. Looking at a picture from an old trip report I now see we should have stayed more to the left. I'd like to go back and try this route again in good conditions just to get a perspective on what other people consider entertaining scrambling. The route we were trying is in Peggy Goldman's "75 Scrambles in Washington." Based on my experiences of scrambling the east gullies of Kaleetan, at this point, I'm doubting their attraction. The approach to Kaleetan via these routes is interesting through the rocky and largely treeless upper Melakwa valley, but the scree is horrible and the ridge route has its own merits. Perhaps these gully routes are better than the ridgeline approach when the scree is mostly snow covered and the ridge route requires traverses of steep snowy slopes. I can understand why someone might prefer a rock climb to a ridge walk, but scrambling on scree is not great sport and seems to invite injury.
At one point the mists lifted a bit and we saw this route on the way down.  This might be the best gully to reach the ridgeline, but it was too foggy to make any good comparisons.
At one point the mists lifted a bit and we saw this route on the way down. This might be the best gully to reach the ridgeline, but it was too foggy to make any good comparisons.
The ridge route starts at Melakwa Lake (follow the sign for the privy) and offers nice views and lots of flowers at the right time of year. This route offers some challenges, but is easy to follow and only the last 120 feet are a scramble. The Melakwa valley itself is very beautiful and well worth a visit. It has a lovely, high Alpine feel when the sun is shining. You can almost hear the goat bells ringing.

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PostSun Aug 08, 2010 1:11 pm 

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Bernardo
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Bernardo
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PostSun Aug 08, 2010 7:27 pm 
2drx, thanks for the pictures. They show what I couldn't see yesterday and are very helpful. Glad we turned around, because finding the right route is critical there. I'll try to get back there in better conditions and write a follow-up report with some comparable pictures.

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1k
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PostTue Aug 10, 2010 7:40 pm 
Bernardo wrote:
I'll try to get back there in better conditions and write a follow-up report with some comparable pictures.
Me too. Was thinking about tomorrow as the weather is suppose to be better than last weekend. In the meantime, here is a link of the Denny Creek to Snow Lake TH loop. Allow plenty of time if you want to bag a peak along the way. The walk down to Chair Peak Lake is pretty steep scree and the lake is still frozen. Maybe not quite ready for prime time. Hand drawn map in the last photo. http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/405229672?start=0

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Mark Griffith
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Mark Griffith
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PostTue Aug 10, 2010 8:05 pm 
I went up the ridge last summer and down the high gully below Melakwa Pass. Down seems much easier to pick the route. I too was suckered in by views of blowing but not quite as bad as your shots.

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Bernardo
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PostTue Aug 10, 2010 10:55 pm 
1k, thanks for the map. I'd like to make some variation of that trip. Mark, I enjoyed your report on your recent trek with Scouts over Melakwa pass. There were no cairns in the last gully where we could have used one in the fog, and I have no problem with that, but I found it ironic there where several marking the route through the bottom of the valley where they were absolutely unnecessary due to the simple topography.

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Mark Griffith
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Mark Griffith
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PostTue Aug 10, 2010 11:03 pm 
Here is a shot of the route :
This shows the route up and down to Kaleetan from Lake Melakwa.  Blue is up and Green is down.
This shows the route up and down to Kaleetan from Lake Melakwa. Blue is up and Green is down.

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Bernardo
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Bernardo
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PostTue Aug 10, 2010 11:19 pm 
That's a very cool image. It interesting that the scree is red on one side of the valley and gray on the other. I believe 2drx's route cuts up closer to Melakwa Pass. That looks pretty steep.

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