[trees4me]

I had been itching to lead an alpine rock route this year. With summer quickly winding down and beautiful weather forecast a half day was in order! Worked until 1pm, then met up with Iowa Ryan at the P&R and we were headed up. Where to climb? What could we do in half a day that was easy and straightforward enough that we would have time to get out of trouble if it was over our heads? Settled on Lundin Peak. Parked with the masses at the shralpental parking lot. We found the cave ridge trail and were started by 2:15. Nice alpine start for this one... We took the Snoqualmie Mt fork (left) went a few more hundred feet and then broke off and headed up the draw. Eventually gaining cave ridge, then almost to snow dome before following the ridge over to the base of Lundin's West ridge. Roped up and led the first pitch, pretty blocky and nice class 4 for about 30m. I futzed around and kept climbing all the way to the notch... then backtracked and belayed up Ryan. We scrambled for a long while from there, mostly on the NW side on easy class 2/3 with an occasional move. Got to the base of a crack/gully that looked fun, so we went up that. Found belay slings at the top, so we couldn't have been too far off route. From that we walked to the top. Summited at about 6:15, 4hours from the car. Since the RMT was visible, and Ryan had forgotten his headlamp, we opted to descend the East Ridge (oooo, now it's a traverse! ) 1 20m rap got us down and then we scrambled class 2/3 terrain back to the Red-Lundin saddle. Jogged out the RMT and opted for the PCT out. Just made it to the parking lot by dusk with no lamps! About 2 miles of road walking and we were back at the all familiar Alpental base. Fun climb, but definitely did not need a 60m rope... more gear to buy

P's first lead, and my first follow up an alpine climb...great day!

Most importantly: The eternal question was answered with an emphatic Yes! (Are we gonna make dinner at North Bend B&G?)