[OutOfOffice]

Better late than never to post this report. It was nice to relive the trip a couple of weeks later, when reviewing my pictures this morning. @Neek proposed Salvation Peak on Saturday afternoon and I agreed after asking if my little brother could tag along. Early on Easter Sunday morning we were off to Bacon Creek road and were driving down it around 8:45am. It's a lonely road with a good amount of trash on it, unfortunately. About 5 miles in we hit impassable blowdown; parked the truck; and began hiking. The blowdown on the road goes on and on for nearly a mile. Afterwards, the road is very overgrown and basically disappears around Jumbo Creek. We started bushwhacking straight up the mountain right after Jumbo Creek. The first 500-800ft were very difficult because it was a downed tree cobweb. As we found out on the way down, walking a bit further past Jumbo Creek would circumvent the worst of the lower slope blowdown. The way up is steep to say the least and a complete slog. Plenty of places to roll your ankle (especially on the way down). We hit snow around 3.5k ft which helped a bit to kick steps and later put the snowshoes on. The last 800ft to the ridge notch took some will power in the deep snow and steep terrain. But hey, that's what you sign up for on a "hike" like this.

all the way up

ice axe ice climbing optional

first peek of the alpine

triumphant

Damnation Peak

Oakes Peak

Interesting tree

When you get up on the ridge it is all worth it though. We were exhausted at the notch but got a second wind of energy at the great views and beautiful snow. The walk from the notch to the summit of Salvation includes a couple of steep snow slopes but it is a wonderful stretch of hiking. Very enjoyable. From where we parked the car, it was 5.95 miles to the summit. I've been up on Oakes Peak before and did not realize it is just a ridge walk away from this peak. Walking Acorn to Salvation may be a good trip idea for the future. The way down we followed our tracks until the snow disappeared. It was a very slippery way down on top of wet foliage and downed logs. Great rewarding trip

[neek]

Thanks for writing this up! Very fun trip. I guess it would be ideal when the snow started a bit lower, but not so low that the road was covered, like when we did Oakes a few years ago. A few more pics. Let's see if I can remember some of the peaks...

Summit pano

Eldorado

Bacon

Sloan, Pugh, White Chuck

Three Fingers, Whitehorse

Blum

Pickets

Thornton

Triumph

Oakes

[raising3hikers]

Definitely a worthy summit! Nice job and pics

[ozzy]

Nice summit boys! A slog...I love it! Views of Triumph and Thornton are sweeeet too!