[awilsondc]

Lemah Mountain first caught my eye from the summit of my first peak in the Snoqualmie Pass area, Kendall Peak. The cascade crest left quite the impression, and I've got a photo from the summit printed on my wall at home and at work.

My Lemah Inspration

The route

Lemah is a classic, but a long day for a day trip at nearly 23 miles. It never seemed to get placed high on my list for over night trips, but had risen on my to do list steadily over the last few years. After a recent trip report indicated that conditions were good, I couldn't resist any longer and decided to give it a go! I drove to the trailhead after work Friday night and slept a few hours before hitting the trail at 2:35am. I remember reading a trip report on here commenting on how boring the Pete Lake trail is. Having done it for Summit Chief a couple years ago, I can say it's nothing to write home about. This makes it the perfect trail to hike in the dark! The first couple hours breezed by as I hiked up past Pete Lake, took a left on the PCT, and hiked to the washed out bridge. From here the route goes off trail to the northwest, following close to Lemah Creek. There is some light bushwhacking to start before the route opens up to rock slabs. The slabs are followed up to a view point where Lemah, Whinnimic Falls, and the whole route come into view. Wow! What a place! The sun was just rising when I arrived and soon the first rays of light hit the peaks. I was hoping for a good sunrise, but my bad luck continued with the most boring sky you could imagine. The golden hour light on the peaks was cool though, and inspired me to take way too many photos as I made my way along the route. From the meadows the route becomes unpleasant. If you stay at the edge of the meadows, it gets really marshy and swampy. Not so bad if you have waterproof boots, but if that's not your thing you head into the brush which can be tricky to find the path of least resistance. I found that from the meadow edge the brush was fairly thigh with patches of slide alder. If you go a bit further inwards away from the meadow you'll come upon quickly steepening slopes. It was at this junction of brush and steepening slopes that I found the easiest travel, although I went the meadow route on my return. After emerging from the brush I made my up Lemah Creek until I hit snow. The crampons went on here and the axe came out, although the axe could have waited until the start of the traverse. It was here that the trip really got good.

Doin' it in the dark

Rock slabs at dawn

First view of Lemah

What a place!

Lemah and Whinnimic Falls

Emergence

Lake reflection

Nearing the gully

A little schwacking

Lemah Creek

Heading up the canyon was something out of a dream! Physically it was a slog, and my boots were giving me foot problems, but the scenery was top notch. Huge rock walls are on either side of you, with many waterfalls cascading down the left (west) side. As you ascend, the creek valley below drops away and soon Three Queens becomes visible. Take care if you are on solid snow as there is a creek somewhere beneath you at all times. Beware of weak snow bridges. After 2400ft of snow slog you veer left to the high traverse. Take caution here as it is a glacier. Sure it's a mellow one, but a felt a little regretful I took this route solo after the fact, even though I had no problems at all. It's always a good idea to be conservative on glacial terrain. The traverse was fairly straight forward, and I had some steps to follow which were still visible even though they were a few days old. The traverse goes under Lemah 5, then 4 and 3 before heading uphill between Lemah 2 and 3. The ascent is mellow until it reaches a cliff band. Later in the season it's a class 3/4 scramble up to the higher snow, but I had melting out snow bridges to contend with. I was able to stay on continuous snow, but there were several careful moves along questionable snow bridges. Above the cliff band the route steepens to 40-45 degrees for a bit before mellowing out a little, then steepening again for the final climb to the base of the scramble route. The final 200 ft to the summit is a great class 3 scramble on mostly solid rock. I wish it were longer, it was a lot of fun! Soon I found myself on the summit, almost exactly 8 hours from the car.

The only melted out section in the canyon

Heading up

Looking down the canyon

Starting the traverse

Nearing the end of the traverse

Three Queens

Cliff band

Lemah 2 rock tower

Summit block

Lemah 2

Final scramble

Views from the top were just ok. Chimney Rock was the main attraction, but nothing else really stood out to me. I signed the register, had lunch, and relaxed with my boots off for a bit. The register was full of familiar names and I read the whole thing. There was only 1 sheet of small notebook paper left to sign in on, so if you head up bring more paper. After an hour on the summit I departed.

Chimney Rock

Snoqualmie Pass area peaks

Climbed most of these

Overcoat

Daniel and Co

Rainier

The steep snow down past the cliff band was face in down climbing for the first part, heavy heeled plunge stepping on fairly firm snow for a bit, before more face in down climbing to get past the cliff band. The traverse was uneventful and heading down the big canyon was a dream with semi cautious, semi relaxed plunge stepping the whole way down on firm but forgiving snow. At the end of the snow I removed my crampon and stowed the axe. I took the meadow / marsh route back to the view point, not caring how wet my feet would get since I would be changing back into trail runners shortly. At the view point I did just that before packing everything including my camera into my bag for the long hike back to the car. I managed to make it back just before 6, with just enough time to get home and tuck my kids into bed. Another highlight of the trip was finding $4.77 gas at the Cle Elm Safeway, woo hoo! Bad ass trip, a highlight of my year for sure and a true PNW classic.

Down the class 3

Down the steep snow

Waterfall in the canyon

Descending down the canyon

Looking back up

Lemah Creek

Whinnimic Falls

The falls and the peaks

ALW wonderland

Beargrass

~22.5 miles 6400ft elevation gain 15:20 c2c

[wyattmullen]

Wow! Whinnimic Falls really makes that scene unforgettable! And I can see why that first photo inspired you to go visit! Incredible!

[zephyr]

[Fletcher]

Well done. Lemah is one of my favorite peaks ever.

[raising3hikers]

Looks good! Great pics as usual. I gotta get there one of these days

[LukeHelgeson]

Yes! Your photos really captured that area well; nice shots. Love that peak and route.

[Gimpilator]

[jaysway]

Those first shots of Whinnimic Falls are amazing! A photographer I follow on IG posted a similar picture a while back and I couldn't figure out where it was taken from despite doing a bit of searching on Caltopo, including looking at some spots pretty close to where it ended up being taken from. I had forgotten about that picture until I saw your pictures here. After spending more time on Caltopo checking out the Lemah area I just figured out where another little nameless place I've seen once or twice on social media is. That one is still buried in snow. Two little mysteries solved .

[Obi Tony Kenobi]

Your "Lemah Inspiration" panorama belongs in a frame on the wall. That pano is BEAUTIFUL!!!! I still remember going to Lemah Falls and popping over the ridge and seeing Whinnimic Falls and Lemah Meadows, its an amazing place. Looks like something out of a fantasy without the castle

[awilsondc]

Adam, Fletcher... I remember your trip report from back in the day, it looked incredible! It was cool to see your names in the register too. It's gotta be up there for one of my favorite trips too. See Eric, after all you've climbed you've still got a gem in your back pocket! Glad I could help with the social media photo identification jaysway! And Tony, that photo is framed on my wall, and it looks great!

[MangyMarmot]

Awesome photos. Lemah has been on my list for too ling. I have to get out there.

[mosey]

I thought your photo was so beautiful I went to go see the falls/slab for myself. [img][/img]

[dixon]

This is awesome Aaron, thanks for sharing with everyone and fantastic pictures! You must have incredible fitness to complete this one in a single trip! Would you recommend waiting until the snow melts out before attempting now?

[awilsondc]