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There are quite a detailed trip reports and tracks already out there for these two peaks but I thought I'd contribute to the beta online about them anyway and share more photos. Our friends were visiting from Spain and really wanted to backpack and check out the Cascades while they were visiting WA. We were trying to find a good area to take them to, one that would show off surrounding lakes, peaks, with a relatively easy trail, and no permits. Obviously, the possibilities are endless, but somehow we ended up deciding on Silver and Twin Lakes. Given the proximity of the peaks to those lakes, we also decided to squeeze in some climbing The trail up to Silver Lake via Monte Cristo trail was straightforward. It was fun trying to imagine what it was like to be there when it was still a town. Once we reached Silver Lake, we found a camp spot right above the outlet of the lake, with just enough room for three tents (though only one was on a nice flat area ). We had wanted to camp at Twin Lakes but our friends weren't feeling it, but I'd highly recommend camping there instead. The campsites seemed a lot nicer than the few around Silver Tip.

Looking down from our campsite at the best spot to filter water

Silver Tip We headed towards Silver Tip, following a faint boot path that went around near the privy. Later, on the way back, we found another boot path that doesn't follow the privy and therefore avoids a short section of shwacking near the privy (to take this route heading up Silver Tip, when the trail breaks off left to the privy, stay on the trail that breaks right). Either way, you will need to shwack just a tiny bit (a few moves) to get to the talus field. There is a faint boot path getting up onto the ridge of Silver Tip that was quite hard to follow, especially on the ascent. But once you reach the talus, generally stay on the rocks and the boot path will weave through it and the heather surrounding it. Everyone else in my party did not weave through the talus/heather and instead just ascended straight up heather to gain the ridge, while I weaved through rock/heather. They said it was not great, so I think my route was better. Made for a good opportunity for cool pics though!

Following the faint trail

Faint trail. Generally head up towards the talus field up near the ridge, in the left third of the photo

Icebergs in Silver Lake

Friends off route + Wilman's

Cadet in background

Wider view

Columbia Peak

Once we gained the ridge we mainly followed it up on climber's left. There was a faint trail most of the way up and route finding was otherwise straightforward. There was minimal shwacking involved and some choss, and overall pretty easy-going. We quickly reached the upper ridge (~5900') and continued on our way towards the summit, traversing below (to the right of) the upper ridge. The start of the traverse was maybe 25ft below the ridge proper, and the way over was mostly solid and snow free.

On the ridge

Looking out towards the lake

Looking towards Silver Tip the upper ridge

Approx route towards the summit block

Summit block

Here are some notes on how to get to the summit. Scramble up class 2/3 rock up the ledges, trying to find the easiest path. You'll eventually reach a ramp up to a corner. Climb up the corner then move up to an exposed 5th class move. Finish off with a mantle up onto a chossy bench. I tried to take photos to more clearly show the route. I am fairly comfortable with exposure and found the 5th class move exposed and airy, but with solid hands and feet so it was well within my comfort level without placing any pro. I probably could've downclimbed it, but it was nice not to have to worry about the downclimb. Plus...training weight... There is a handline set up, but I wouldn't trust bearing weight on it as it was rather frayed and suspicious-looking. But as of the time we climbed up, the handline follows the main route.

Summit block (taken from when we first gained the upper ridge)

Closer look of the route up to the anchor

Some 3rd class scrambling up the ledges

Continue up towards the point indicated by the arrow

Here's the corner that you need to climb up. Right above this is the 5th class move (behind my head).

Looking down at the 5th class move (it's still out of view, but it is up the rock with yellow/green lichen)

As a side note, supposedly there is another way to scramble up. I think that it's the block to climber's right of the crux move (it looks quite blocky). I didn't check it out since the well-documented crux move looked okay to me. We rapped down the route with a 30m which took us to the base of the corner, if I remember correctly. The rap station at the time looked good to use. Not sure when it was last replaced, but the last report I read of someone replacing it was in 2020.

Rap station

This was a super fun climb to me, but I am a sucker for exposed (but solid) climbing and big views. As many others have stated, even if you don't climb up to the summit, you'll be rewarded with excellent views from both the lower and upper ridge. I posted more photos of the views down below. Columbia The next day we headed out towards Twin Lakes and Columbia. There might be a route along the ridge between Twin Peaks, but we opted to cross over through the basin. We followed the path of least resistance toward a boulder field. We climbed up the boulder field and some heather, aiming for a spot on the ridge. After reaching the ridge, continue up steep heather until you get an impressive view of Columbia (I think around 5600')

Basin we crossed, heading towards the boulder field left of the last snow patch

Looking down from the boulder field with a view of Silver Tip

Up heather to the ridge

View of Twin Lakes from the ridge

Steep heather

Looking back

More steep heather

Said view

From here, keep following the trail and enjoy the views!

We reached the first snow patch on the route and ascended the snow up to a talus field at about 6300'. The talus field was not bad for Cascadian choss standards, but our friends from Spain are used to nice solid rock in the well-maintained areas of the Alps At one point, they said "the mountain is so beautiful and looks so nice to climb, but up close it's just a pile of loose rocks." Yes...yes it is. After they realized the choss was manageable and wasn't going to send them sliding down the mountain to the valley floor, we made it up to the cliff band at about 6500'. It's best to stay left of the talus field to reach the cliff band, as the rock tends to be more solid and there is a nice bench you can use to traverse. At the time there was a wide enough gap between snow and the cliff band that we could just traverse right below the cliff band on scree. It wasn't too loose and the going was easy.

We ascended the snow patch second from the bottom left

Getting onto talus from snow

Near the top of talus, right below the cliff band

Bench and a view of the moat. If you zoom in, you'll one person walking along the bench (center of photo) and another gaining the bench (a little to the left of the center)

Once we passed the moat our friends decided to turn back, not wanting to deal with more choss. My partner and I continued on. To get onto the rock/scramble portion of Columbia requires a 4th class move. Again, I was comfortable with this move and the rock is solid, but it is relatively exposed considering the width of the bench. It's also kind of a tall move. For reference, I am 5'7" and it was a little reachy but manageable and within my comfort level. The scramble itself was somewhat fun, but I think with the heat of the day and not knowing just how loose it'd be, I was tired of rocks crumbling underneath me and didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. It's definitely not the loosest scramble I've done, but I would not call this a scramble on solid rock. I don't really remember the scramble route, but in general we stayed left; others' TRs have more detail on the route. Eventually you'll reach a flat spot, round a loose orange-rock corner, then scramble a bit more up to the summit. The way down was surprisingly quick and easy...perhaps I had known what to expect at that point so I was able to cruise down. We managed to not kick too many rocks on the way up/down but there is lots of potential for that.

We walked a little ways along the bench here to reach the 4th class step.

4th class move to get on the rock. I flagged on the downclimb

There is a nice rock to step onto but you can see how much I had to extend

Looking up at a portion of the scramble. Looks nice, but it's loose

Lots of spots along the route with solid rock to use

Rounding the loose orange-rock corner

All in all, this was a great trip! Our friends from Spain got a taste of cascadian choss (whether or not that's what they wanted when they said they wanted to experience the Cascades:p ), and got some pretty sweet views! I'd say this whole route is pretty low effort with very high reward, as the views start shortly after Poodle Dog Pass, you don't have to climb up to a peak to get nice views and there is a trail (although at times faint) for a lot of it. I think total stats for this was ~22mi and ~8500ft gain....more or less. Here are more photos for your viewing pleasure.

Final ridge walk to the summit of Silver Tip

Del Campo + Gothic from summit of Silver Tip

Baker from Silver Tip

I liked the jagged ridge of Foggy against GP

Towards the ALW. I thought Spire Mountain was super cool

Cool slab on the summit

This is the upper ridge of Silver Tip. The traverse is to the left of the ridge

A calm evening

Our friend spotted a volcano in the reflection

A calm morning and a cool look at Silver Tip

This face of Hubbart looks so cool

Better view of Twin Lakes

Cliff bands on Columbia

A cool look at Silver Lake + Silver tip

Baker again from Columbia (really digging the 3x zoom on my iPhone)

The clouds rolled in and the views got a bit moody. I liked how the waterfalls were illuminated

I think these are Wilman's Spires

The inside of a fallen tree, full of spikes...looks crazy

[Monkey Del Mar]

Very nice trip and TR. I'm considering doing Columbia tomorrow -- did you use bikes to get to Monte Cristo? Or if you walked in, how was the log crossing? TIA

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[Monkey Del Mar]

Great, thank you for the reply!

[awilsondc]

Awesome trip vk! I love that area. You've got some really good beta in here too. Thanks for the writeup!

[olderthanIusedtobe]

Beautiful. I climbed Columbia almost by accident years ago. Was following the path up from the Twin Lakes overlook. Summiting wasn't my goal, but I ran into a climber on his way down that encouraged me to go for it. It's one of those, it doesn't really look like it has a fairly non technical route up that face, and yet it does. Such an imposing looking mountain, I love that view from that area. The whole trail from Silver Lake to Twin Lakes is pretty cool.

[olderthanIusedtobe]

[ozzy]

[olderthanIusedtobe]

[olderthanIusedtobe]

Oh shoot, the picture Ozzy quoted shows it even better--Columbia and all the various Wilmans Peaks and Spires.

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