[geyer]

Date: July 4, 2018 Distance: 26.2 miles Accum. Elevation Gain: ~ 7000' (+/- 2000 depending on which software computes it) Total Humans Seen: None outside of the PCT/ Pete Lake Lemah Mountain has two main approach routes - from Mineral Creek and from Pete Lake - so I thought it would be a nice challenge to connect those two routes into a loop that passed several alpine lakes. The main objective was to summit Lemah (#3) and, if time allowed, give Lemah #1 and Chikamin a run for their money. The route looked great on paper... If only reality were so kind Tip: If you want to give this route a go, save it for August. I think I could shave 6-8 hours off my time if I were to do it again. PSA: If you dropped a pair of trekking poles in the Lemah basin, send me a message with brand and defining trait. I picked them up.

My route on Lemah (Class, not grade. brainfart.)

Based off previous trip reports of Lemah, I decided I was going to go lighter with just trail runners to make the approach easier. Strap-on crampons would hopefully do the trick for the glacier. Nobody else's TR seemed to indicate any trouble with the snow, and in Fletcher's TR, one of the guys did it in microspikes. I brought one ski pole and an ice axe, camera gear, puffy, rain shell, lots of snacks, 2L water + filter, and headlamp. I wore shorts. Weather report was for sun in the morning followed by clouds and wind and a 20% chance of rain. This was spot on; my gear selection, not so much. After sleeping about 4 hours at the Pete Lake TH, I hit the trail at 3:45 am and intermittently ran and hiked in twilight. I made it 4.5mi to Pete Lake in about an hour. Good start. After one quick stop to snap a pic of pre-sunrise Lemah Mtn over Pete Lk, I continued on. When the primitive creek crossing approached, I instead took a right to link up with the PCT. A left onto the PCT was followed by about half a mile of trail before turning right up the Lemah Creek drainage, staying north of the creek. I escaped this brush without so much as a scrape on my shins. So far, so good.

Pete Lake twilight views

At this point, the sun started to light up Lemah and Chimney Rock. It was hard not to stop and stare. So I didn't fight it; pictures were taken. Even more pictures were taken in the Lemah Creek basin, where I was met by a cascading waterfall and that unique snow finger. I could already tell my goal to be on the summit by 9:30 was in jeoopardy. New goal: be at the col by 9 am and hope the traverse and climb doesn't take longer than an 1.5 hours. For whatever reason, I'm cool as a cat - my tardiness doesn't phase me at all.

Lemah creek basin first views

views back to the valley and forest fire remnants

-L-E-M-A-H

Waterfall + Lemah

ascent

snow finger

waterfall

b&w

artsy take

monochrome version

looking back

I put on crampons and climb the snow finger to the beginning of the traverse, meeting my new goal of a 9 am arrival. I did not like what I saw when I got there - steep snowfields with horrible runouts over sheer cliffs, open crevasses and growing moats, and worst of all was the snow condition. It was closer to spring mush than it was to a consolidated summer pack - far too much give. I nearly turned around right here. Instead, I took a break, surveyed my surroundings and decided I would go over this first ridge and if I the terrain mellowed out, I would continue onward, but if it didn't, I would call it a day.

got crack?

look back

ascent

Yep, this is a real glacier with real crevasses

Thankfully, after some of the slowest and most tedious steps I've ever taken, the terrain did mellow out, but my little s̶c̶a̶r̶e̶ break had cost me a precious commodity. Time. It's already almost 9:40. The rest of the traverse to the base of Lemah 2/3 is easy going, but the closer I get, the more I realize that the moat is going to be an issue and my trail-runner and crampons combo is going to be problematic. I get to the first rock challenge and climb up it pretty easily with my crampons on. After this, the slope steepens and the runout becomes unpleasant again. Each step is a deliberate 3-stomp heel-smash into the snow followed by a 3-pierce-push of the axe into the snow. It takes a considerable amount of time and effort not to fall. I still had to go into self arrest a few times.

ascent

gendarmes

In case you thought I was exaggerating the steepness, here's this

The second moat was where things got tricky. To get there, you have to pass a maze of bergschrund, still passable with strong snow bridges. AFter that, there was a 15 foot waterfall going over a moat that was 3 feet away from the snow. Luckily I found a ledge to do the splits on over the edge of the moat. I placed my ice ax on the ledge and ---- grinding noise ---- I watched, helplessly in slow-motion as it glided across the rock and fell into the moat ---- THUNK. Luckily the base of the moat was flat and it stopped. Phew, crisis averted. Easily retrievable. Immediately after the moat, the snow got even steeper still - probably near 50 degrees. Maybe it's because I hadn't been on a solo mission in a while, but for the first time in a long time, I was overcome with fear. The steep runout followed by gaping bergschrund was not what I wanted to see. I made my way over to the melted rocks for a tolerable class III scramble instead. I thought I was done with snow so I took off my crampons. At the top of the rock, I hit snow again and put the 'pons back on. From here, the normal route would go right up the steep snow to the summit ridge, but it looked mellower to take the gully on the right. This quickly proved idiotic as the snow in the gully was >60 degrees. I made it to the moat in the gully and did some 4th class scrambling to the summit ridge. Even though it was 4th class, I still prefered it to the steep snow standard route. I thought making the ridge would be the end of my worries, but that proved flawed as well. The wind whipped over the edge in a gale so strong it nearly blew me off my feet. Scrambling to the summit was done with all fours glued to the rock, no matter how steep! I finally made it to the summit where I cooled my nerves for a good 55 minutes. Time? 11:55. sh##.

Thanks for the TR, fletcher

Lemah + Chimney Rock

Chimney

Stuart

Vitamin R

Three Queens

burntboot Creek Valley --> Middle Fork Snoqualmie

Chikamin and Lemah 1 are out. Getting back to Seattle for fireworks. Also, probably out. I get out my phone and text my contacts that things have gotten hairy but I'll be back later than anticipated. Summit reception FTW On the descent, I went with the standard route because I thought going down the steep snow would be easier. Negative. Even harder to get a good foothold when your toe points downhill. I quickly made it back to the rock and downclimbed the class III. When I got to the moat, I didn't even bother getting back on the snow, I downclimbed low class V slab back to relative safety. By this point, even though the runout wasn't bad and the slopes weren't too steep, fear had taken its stronghold on me and I was too afraid to even attempt plunge steps. One deliberate step at a time. Several falls and arrests later and a mellower slope, and I finally realize I didn't have the time for this and did a quick glissade to make my way down before working up the courage to do a little shoe-skiing followed by running.

Rappel Sling. Yep, they had the right idea

The rest of the traversing was easy until making it to the ridge of Lemah 1. The gully I thought I would be ascending was a scree-filled rock fall. Instead, to get to the ridge, I would have to go up another steep snowfield. Oh, hello Fear. Is that you again? Good ol' fear coaxed me into heading toward the wide moat and taking that up to the ridge instead of the steep mushy snow. When I got about 3 feet from the edge of the moat, the lip gave way and I fell 5 feet down, again dropping my ice axe. CLINK! CLANK! CLINK! THUNK! sh##.

The moat that ate my ice axe

RIP CAMP Neve, you served me well. After my initial worries about the axe subsided, I realized that this could have gone much, much worse. I'm lucky to not be down with that ice axe, deep under the snow. I give up on the moat and decide to give it a wide birth, using "some dude's" trekking pole as a makeshift axe for self-belay. What a trainwreck this has turned into. I check the map in case this ridge doesn't go and I have to bail. Good. The snow slope will work. However, the windy scramble did go, and I made it to the heathery slopes on the NW side of Lemah 1, which took me down to Chikamin Lake.

Chikamin Lake + Peak

Chikamin

Raindrops. sh##. At Chikamin lake, your only option is to stay south of the lake, unless you want to go high toward the summit of Chikamin Peak. And on this south side, there is yet another steep snow slope. Only this time the runout is an icy bath. I don't have an axe anymore, so I'm trying to be careful, but I also know that time is not on my side. It's nearing 4 pm. At one point I rush it, fall, and quickly go into self arrest, but the pole does nothing and I go sliding straight into a rock band, where my pack pads me and I fall into another moat. sh##. Lucky again. Could have been much, much, much worse. I finally make it down to the lake and find a remnant of a trail that disappears under snow. After some routefinding, and clutch veggie belay, I made it down to Glacier Lake. After more routefinding and enough bushwacking to turn my shins a nice shade of pink, I made it to Spectacle Lake. Time: 6:50pm.

Glacier Lake more frozen than Chikamin, but

creek views

Specacle Lake looking back on Lemah

little inlet

I know it's late, but I'm ecstatic (or more accurately, I would be ecstatic if I had enough energy for emotions). Only trouble is that I was counting on having a bootpath around the lake. Instead, it's more 'shwacking and routefinding over cliff bands. At 7:45, I finally made it to the Spectacle Lake trail. 4 hours and 10 miles of mind-numbing trails later and I had made it back to my car. Thankfully, in one piece, sans an ice axe. Total time: 20 hours. Yuck.

[awilsondc]

Damn!!! I saw you climbed Lemah on your Instagram and thought, oh man he climbed Lemah!!! I'm so jealous! I read the whole report. I'm not jealous anymore. I'm glad everything worked out despite several scary situations! I'm packing up for a trip right now. You've convinced me to bring my ice axe leash. Nice job gettin 'er done!

[Fletcher]

Lemah is one of my all time favorite peaks. Nice solo outing

[neek]

Wow... thanks for the thorough and honest report. Boots are good. That Chikamin Lake+Peak photo is really dramatic. I think your Four Brothers shot is really Three Queens however.

[Bootpathguy]

[puzzlr]

I'm glad you got back safe. That's a lot to do any time of year but especially now. Your plan for running shoes would work better in Aug/Sep when there's a lot more rock and heather exposed. Congrats on making the summit.

[geyer]

Aaron- I wish I hadn't taken my hand leash off during ski season. I'd be +1 axe right now Fletcher- yeah I can see it being much more enjoyable with some company and better conditions Neek/Puzzlr- boots would have helped in this snow a bit, if for no other reason than the stability they would provide the crampons. Not sure if kick-steps would have been a viable option. Bootpathguy- that lake deserves more visitation!

[wolffie]

7/26/2014 The moat was the problem. I'd not have had the nerve to go for it if I hadn't seen someone coming down across the moat. Impossible to suss out from below. After I got across it, I saw how tenuous it was; I recall thinking it was OK where we crossed, but really thin snow bridges elsewhere that might have looked OK from below. I just looked at my TR from 2014, and you should check out b00's comment, which has a significant photo and route modification: "...when i was there 8-5-2012, the snow looked similar, but we exited perfect snow a lot farther climber's right. the reason, i checked that way, was i saw pictures of others doing the same. so my assumption is, the snow works better farther right most times." Lemah 7/26/2014

[olderthanIusedtobe]

[Jake Robinson]

That's one hell of a marathon! Captivating TR - I wish I could write like you.

[DigitalJanitor]

huge thanks for the trip report and mapping. We're not cool enough to climb Lemah- especially with a 12yo in tow- but Spectacle is on the list, and I'm glad for your more accurate GPS shot + possibility of getting up to Glacier from that direction.

[geyer]

[DigitalJanitor]

Packraft FTW! We're planning on herfing two boats up.

[olderthanIusedtobe]