[ragman and rodman]

Charlie Hickenbottom and larman joined me for this hike/climb to the seldom visited south summit of The Cradle (7467')... The Cradle also has a north summit which is also triangulated at 7467'. Having now seen both summits up close, my best guess is that the north summit gets far fewer visits than the south summit... the south summit register was placed in 1984 and rarely had more than 2 or 3 entries per year (no entries in 2004)... so plenty of room is available for future visits. The Cradle is located approximately 7 miles northwest of Mt. Stuart and 3 miles southeast of Granite Mtn (the one above Robin Lakes)... at 7467', it is ranked at #22 on the "Wenatchee Mountains Back Court Top 100" list and if you ranked the list by clean prominence, it would be #4 on the list at 2107'. Just before crossing the bridge that takes you to the Salmon La Sac campground, turn right (uphill) on a gravel road (it might be called the Fish Lake road)... the Paddy-Go-Easy trailhead is a mile beyond the Fish Lake Guard Station on the right side of the road. The first day we backpacked to Paddy-Go-Easy Pass (3 miles, gaining 2700 feet of elevation) and set up camp... after a short rest, we hiked north from the pass and climbed up to Paddy-Go-North (Point 6573)... after dinner we hiked over to Sprite Lake and to the ridge above the lake. The next morning we left camp at 5:30 a.m. with the hope of reaching the south ridge of The Cradle before the sun got to us on this very hot day... we first had to give back 1200 feet of elevation as the trail wound down for 2 miles to the French Creek/Meadow Creek junction... we turned south on the Meadow Creek trail and soon crossed the creek on a large log... a quarter mile after crossing the creek we found the large meadow area where we left the marginally maintained trail and headed directly for the south ridge of the Cradle. We gained 1700 feet of elevation to roughly 6600 feet on The Cradle's south ridge and did just barely beat the sunshine... we gave back 200 feet of elevation and worked our way over to the east ridge at approximately 6800 feet... then we were able to use snow most of the way to the south summit block... the last 150 feet to the summit is clearly Class 3 scrambling. Spectacular views in all directions... The Stuart Range, the northern peaks in the Teanaway area, Snoqualmie Pass Peaks, and Dutch Miller Peaks... as far south as Mt. Adams and north to Mt. Baker. Estimate 7000 plus feet in elevation gain and 19 total miles including our two side trips from Paddy-Go-Easy Pass. Extra thanks to Charlie Hickenbottom whose patience and guidance made it possible for larman and me to sit on the south summit of The Cradle. Topo map and pictures from our Cradle trip. ..

[JimK]

Congratulations of making the summit! You were smart to do it while there was still some snow. Also a good idea to drop down from the ridge and climb up to the east ridge. That's how we came down. A level traverse from the saddle on scree is a nightmare. Hard to believe it has been 13 years since I was there.

[Type E]

Inspiring trip. I think the Cradle will have to wait until next year for me.

[wildernessed]

Good Stuff, as always.

[Matt]

I've wondered about the Cradle, since not many people get there. thanks for the report.

[ragman and rodman]

Fred Beavon (nwhikers.net member) read Charlie's report of our Cradle trip on the WTA website and emailed him with the following info about the summit register and climbing the north summit: "When my brother and I did the two Cradles on 9/23/98 the original register by Prater was still in a glass jar. Hopefully, it's still there. We decided the two summits were too close in elevation to guess which was higher. Regarding the north summit, we went up it on the west side and down it on it's east side on an exposed ramp. Easy scrambling either way." p.s. We didn't see Prater's glass jar register... maybe it was on the north summit.