[Fletcher]

Eric, PeeWee and I were really looking forward to taking advantage of the gorgeous weather in the mountains yesterday. After throwing around a few ideas, we settled on Methow Pinnacles, a 1000 ft prominence peak just south of Mebee Pass. We parked at MP 150 on Highway 20 and set out straight up the big berm from our pullout. A TR on peakbagger had warned us against doing this, which we ignored and payed for it by having to contend with a few hundred feet of icy brush and blowdown. We could have avoided this by walking a hundred yards down the highway before turning uphill.

early views of Kitling Peak

We soon found ourselves in open forest and made fast progress upward towards the snowline. I think we started hitting snow before the burn area around 5000 ft. We put snowshoes on at 5500 ft in quickly deepening snow and amazing views!

PeeWee snowshoeing up through the burn

chilly morning

PeeWee broke just a tiny bit of trail, a tried to break my fair share, and Eric broke a disproportionate amount up the ridge towards the summit. The snow was surprisingly deep. We would have never made the summit without snowshoes.

Eric breaking trail

beautiful morning

a larch still holding some needles

Its already winter above 6k in the North Cascades with a big snowpack for late October. We made the summit right around noon. The summit boulders felt a little sketchy with the exposure and powdery plastering of snow.

Eric breaking towards the summit

Eric almost to the top

summit!

alpine move

Holliway and Golden Horn

It was frigid on the summit so we descended 500 ft to get out of the wind for lunch. We were all stoked to be out on such a bluebird day with crystal clear skies.

PeeWee dropping down from the summit

a distant Baker, Shuksan and Pickets

Back to the car and beer before 2:30. Awesome day out! We managed to avoid the brush and blowdown getting back to the highway.

quick road walk back to the car

~5.5 miles ~4100 ft of gain ~6ish hours

[Backpacker Joe]

Hey, whats all that white stuff? Nice work. Thanks for posting.

[raising3hikers]

It was a perfect trip for the day that we had. As Fletcher and Kyle found out, I really needed some mountain therapy yesterday So glad that we didn't choose a different trip with more miles in the snow slogging that we didn't expect. The snow was way deeper than all of us had thought it would be, the warm rain on Thursday, must not have been as warm in the mountains. I agree with Fletcher, that we would not have made it without snowshoes. It might have been the earliest snowshoe trip I've ever had. It didn't feel like October up there Better than expected views and just plain great to get out with those guys.

Gabriel and Elijah ridge to the West

Ragged Ridge to the South

a blustery summit

Pee Wee and Fletcher at the summit

looking back at our tracks to the summit ridge

thanks for the great trip

[iron]

[puzzlr]

Great work getting this done. It's really early in the year to confront a long snow slog. I wonder if it will all be gone (except high up) by December.

[GaliWalker]

[Route Loser]

Nice wintry trip. I was up in that burn scar in May, and a stout wind in the snags was making me a little queasy. Such a great view to Ragged, Gabriel and Elijah. I'm liking those shots of windblown snow over the summit.

[Stefan-K]

Nice! Looks good with snow. Those pinnacles look great from the other (methow)side too -

The one you were up on is just to the right, off photo. If you look closely you can see the lookout (pre-rehab 2013). Goode in background. zoom in -

[kitya]

Thank you for the idea and the route. Me and Cookie followed you on Sunday, because we are lazy and wanted to have a lazy day, and this one is perfectly short. Me and Cookie did the blowdown hopping right off mile 150 both up and down, it was a bit tedious with the leash, but it is very short, after this initial struggle, the ridge is surprisingly open. At the burn I found your very obvious footprints. At around 6000 ft when it gets more open, your trail completely disappeared under the new windblown snow. Cookie felt the summit area is sketchy and she didn't like all the wind blowing snow in her face, so we had a bit of a fight about it and didn't stay long.

[timberghost]