After a 45 minute drive up the Icicle Creek road past Leavenworth, I parked at the empty Blackpine trailhead. I hadn't hiked this steep Blackjack Ridge trail before but the sunny weather gave me plenty motivation to reach the upper ridgelines. Cool air in the thick woods as I ascended the North ridge on a dry dirt trail. 8 or 9 blowdowns in the first mile or so (all easily bypassed or climbed over), then the first snow patches began around 4400'.
Solid continuous snow by 4600' so I quit attempting to follow the now hidden trail. Kicked steps mostly straight up the ridge spine thru a thick forest. Fortunately the firm, sun-cupped snow was just soft enough in most places to provide solid boot steps. I had snowshoes on my pack but the forest was dense enough that I had to occasionally make short horizontal traverses on the steep slopes to find openings upward. I’m not a fan of snowshoeing sidehill on hard snow, so I put up with the occasional knee deep posthole.
DCG_8996 - looking back down the ridge
DCG_8997 - Firm steep snow
After 1300’ of vertical kickstepping, the ridgeline eased back and began to open up.
Warm sunshine bounced off the deep snow and sunglasses were a must. I enjoyed great views back to the North above the Icicle Creek valley, but I knew they were going to be even better as I continued to climb the long ridge.
DCG_9011 - Bootjack Mountain
Snow began to soften in the late morning heat and I debated whether to put on snowshoes now. I was sinking 4”-6” with intermittent 12”-18” holes but I could see the ridge tightening up higher and thought I might have to shift to the right/West side of the ridge. That side of the ridge was heavily forested and steep, but would keep me off the cliffy cornices up higher.
DCG_9015 - Final slopes below Bootjack summit
A couple hundred feet below the summit, I felt uneasy as the ridge narrowed with cornices and a very steep snow slope to my left. So I pushed into the trees on the other side of the ridge and twisted my way thru the thick trees. Steep slopes on this side too, but no cornices and heavily treed so I felt comfortable continuing. I ended up going just past the summit and corkscrewed around, approaching the summit from the South.
Typical mountain summit this time of year with bare warm rocks coated with ladybugs. Wonderful 360° views of Cashmere, Stuart, Rainier, Daniel, Granite, etc. I had hoped to continue on to Highchair but I used up a little too much time on the ascent to Bootjack. I had hoped I wouldn’t hit continuous snow until the ridge opened up and thought the “open” ridge would then be fairly quick travel. The snow was 5’-6’ deep and tightened up my options as I got closer to Bootjack. So instead of an all day marathon trip to Highchair, I savored some snacks and water on the Bootjack summit instead. First warm mountain summit sunshine this year and it felt great.
DCG_9022 - Highchair
DCG_9023 - Highchair
DCG_9025 - The Cradle
DCG_9026 - Large avalanche on The Cradle
After an hour break on the summit, I packed up and slowly picked my way down off the summit. Now that I could see the ridgeline from the other direction and where the hazards were, I was able to stay on the ridge for longer stretches. Still had to pop over to the West side of the ridge in 2 or 3 spots where I didn’t trust the afternoon Sun cooking the snow on top of the spine. One last look to the North and I exited the open ridge to start heading down the forested steep slope back to the trailhead.
I wanted to follow my ascent steps as much as possible since the ascent line had been pretty efficient. But the semi hard snow, sun-cupped and carpeted with pine needles made it a bit hard to pick out my shallow footprints. Toss in the shadows from the trees and I had to pause more than once to find my old steps. Glad to finally get off the steep snow and onto the remaining portion of the dry trail. Arrived back at the still empty trailhead and headed back home. All in all, a fun ridge with awesome views.
Great report and current beta. Looks a bit different with snow cornices hanging over the edges. I'ts actually a fun trail when snow free. I want to go back and traverse on out to Cradle Lake. Either on the ridge top boot path or by the original trail that drops down the north side into the basin. Both trails come together further east.
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