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Justus S. Member
Joined: 17 Nov 2004 Posts: 1298 | TRs | Pics Location: WA |
Lobox has been on my wish list for a while as it was my last major peak up the Rachel Lake trail. This past Friday my older brother and I went out and tackled it. Our approach was via the Hibox trail. We hiked the trail to around 5500ft and then traversing east toward Lobox. The traverse was reasonable with a little up and down, fairly straight forward. The wildflowers were at their peak and the open slopes looked beautiful. We connected back up with the Hibox/Lobox ridge at 5500ft. We then made our way over and down to the saddle. There were some really nice views of 3Queens and the major Snoqualmie Alps on the way over to the saddle. We were glad to find some snow patches left to refill our water bottles, there is very little snow left.
On the hike over an obvious path up to the summit didn’t jump out at us. We opted to try and work our way up the eased contours that run up the southwest side. For this route we dropped south a bit from the saddle to get around cliffs then headed up. We needed to get around one more cliff band before finding easier terrain up. We found a nice easy scramble ramp up this second cliff band and were home free to the summit block.
The only beta I remembered for this peak was you wanted a rope. We had brought gear for a short climb. Turned out most of what I brought was just training weight. The crux of the block is basically 10-15ft, unprotectable climbing, 4th/easy 5th. My brother did the crux easily in his rock shoes. Once on top, he belayed me up. The last entry in the reg was b00’s party. We enjoyed the little summit, rappelled down, and headed back the way we hiked in. Lobox isn’t going to win any awards, but we were glad to visit the summit.
Good day in the mountains with my brother.
Notes: 25m rope for rappel, webbing for rap anchor. Rock shoes will make the climb easy, boots are probably fine but we had brought shoes so we used them.
traverse Lobox turtlehead summit from traverse views lobox summit views Hibox
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Mosquito Food This is how we do it
Joined: 11 Jan 2008 Posts: 74 | TRs | Pics Location: Covington |
Nice report Justus. Years ago the Rachel Lake trail was notorious for night prowlers and the surface covered in broken bits of glass as proof.
Unfortunately, I've stayed away from parking there for years now whhich is a damn shame since it's such a cool launch spot for adventures.
Do you have any feel for the level of safety these days? Bits of glass noted on the ground?
Best,
Aaron
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Justus S. Member
Joined: 17 Nov 2004 Posts: 1298 | TRs | Pics Location: WA |
I think I remember my brother commenting that there was glass on the ground. Lots of folks camping overnight though, and lots of folks camping along the road in too.
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puzzlr Mid Fork Rocks
Joined: 13 Feb 2007 Posts: 7216 | TRs | Pics Location: Stuck in the middle |
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puzzlr
Mid Fork Rocks
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Wed Jul 10, 2019 6:29 pm
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Justus S. wrote: | My brother did the crux easily in his rock shoes. |
I need a brother like that. We "climbed" Loxbox in combination with Hibox a while back but no one was willing to risk that last bit up the rock at the top. Congrats on reaching the real summit.
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