[ozzy]

It's been kind of a quiet season thus far for myself. As luck would have it we were blessed with a nice forecast for the weekend though , a good time to go out and get the legs tuned up! Bryan was onboard as usual this trip and we decided to go out Thursday and Friday. The objective for this mission would be Big Snow! It's been on my radar for awhile and I figured it would make for a nice quiet trip this time of year. I've never traveled out to this area before so I was definitely excited to explore some newness. On Thursday morning I picked up Bryan and we made our way to the Dingford creek TH, arriving around 6am. The road is crappy so high clearance recommended. After a bit we set off at 645am. We were approaching via Myrtle lake. After a few miles we hit intermittent snow and donned the snowshoes. We kept them on for maybe half a mile before we got annoyed of walking on bare ground with them, the rest of the way to Myrtle lake we didn't really even need them anyhow, lol. Upon arriving at the lake we had our first views of Big Snow proper! Wowwweeeee, what a cool looking mountain!! Also we had nice look at the chute we would take up to our camp! It looks rather daunting from afar but we figured it would be trivial once inside the beast. The plan was to camp at either Big Snow lake or Snowflake lake, which both lie 1200ft above Myrtle lake. So we took a nice break here. Avy danger seemed to be minimal, slides visible were a few days old. The time was 11am. It was kind of a slog to get to the lake, there were definitely a lot of posthole shenanigans!

Pumpkinseed falls

Big Snow from Myrtle lk, the chute is down to left

Looking north across Myrtle

After an hour or so we put snowshoes on and took off towards the mouth of said chute. First we had to find a crossing to get over the outflow of Myrtle lake. The snow banks were still 6-8ft high which meant we had limited options, but as luck would have it we found a good tree that fell nicely across. We ended up utilizing the butt schooch method to cross! It kind of reminds me of when ones' dog drags it's ass across the carpet at home. Not the most glamorous technique but effective lol. After the crossing another 400ft was gained then we transitioned to pons and axe. The last 600ft inside the chute wasn't as bad as we thought and went by quickly considering how slow we had felt all day. Moderately steep all the way. The last 50ft had a waterfall that undermined the snow which disappeared quickly back under the snow. It was easily bypassed to the right but definitely a no fall zone. Sorry no pics of that spot, I just wanted to get by it. Once atop the chute the scenery blew us away! Big Snow proper seemed crazy close! The lakes we still frozen over and there's still a descent amount of snow on surrounding slopes. Man, the granite architecture of this place is mesmerizing. I'm glad we picked this summit, I had almost bailed and wanted to do another peak. Goddamn the rewards were paying off now! We decided to set up the bivies at snowflake lk since we had a nice view of the route ahead. And wouldn't you know it we decided just to chill out for the rest of the day and enjoy the scene, after all we still had a stash of whiskey and vodka to get rid of! The time was 2pm. Around 5pm while napping I awoke to the sound of rain hitting the bivy, sh##! We both retreated to the bivies. I was a bit worried I botched the forecast lol, but It ended up just being a constant shower with some sleet for about 1.5hrs thank god. Nice sunny weather until the sun went down after that, a sweet starry night followed after that to end the day.

Boot scooter lol

Halfway up chute looking down towards Myrtle

Almost

I'm above the waterfall, Bryan lower

Big Snow lk

The upper reaches of the mountain

Big snow lk

mirin'

Bivy site

At 7am we arose from the cocoons and at 8am shouldered light packs to clamber up the last 1800ft, I think in less than a mile too! Snowflake lake was still frozen enough just to walk across and start climbing. Generally we traveled SE and stuck to the easiest terrain. Views opened up quick and conditions were nice until the last 400ft to get to the ridge. It began to get a little sloppy up through here. The lakes down below looked cool too. Once we crested the, the whole Snoqualmie crest is right in your face! Sicky icky indeed! The day was just as forecasted, sunny and clear baby! The volcanoes up north were visible and the entirety of the ALW as well! From here the summit lies a little to the south and a couple hundred feet higher. We hit the summit at 10am and the views were mind blowing as expected, I love the way Big Snow is situated! It's in the middle of a lot of badass stuff. I've never really been in this little area, more stuff to do than I originally thought! Rainier was showing to the south as well as all the cool peaks in the Snoqualmie region. One that I never thought about was Treen pk to the west. It definitely moved up on my list while looking at it and it turns out Neek and Dave were up the that same day! Cheers boys! There was a stiff cool breeze up top so we sought out some calmer terrain down lower to smoke and enjoy the last of the vodka. Oooowwwweee, what a day!

Heading up with the three lks below

Nice travel

Bryan coming on up

The crest area peaks

The last bit to the summit

Views south from top. Rainier looms might and Snoqualmie peaks in front

B-Dawg bringing it

Out to Hinman and Daniel

GP way out there

Lemah,Chikamin and friends

Thomson in the center there

Chimney lemah chikamin

Bryan trying to warm up

yeah

God I love this place

down down down

Around 1230pm we didn't want to, but we had to start the walk out. It started to warm up a bit more than the day before. On the way back to camp Bryan enjoyed some nice glissades. At 115pm we were back at camp and took our time packing up, it was hard leaving here too. At 2pm it was time to go, going back down the chute was a bit more intimidating. The waterfall disappeared into a black hole of death...don't fall. After that it was easy peasy the whole way to the car, kinda annoying at times with the variable snow conditions. Some of those stretches are minefields lol. The good news is I think snowshoe season is over, yewwww! At 6pm we finally reached the car. What a sweet little nook in the mountains, I gotta get back in there more! I think the stats for this one is some like 14miles and 5300ft gain. We did it over a day and a half and I was still pretty sore. Maybe I'm gettin old but I'm just blaming it on conditions lol. Anyhows thanks goes out to B-Dawg for joining again, now let's go get another one. Cheers to all fellow wanderers!!

Bryan above the nast lil waterfall

Cool hollow tree

Until next time

[chiwakum]

Cool trip Where'd you camp?

[LukeHelgeson]

Fantastic Summit! I walked around Big Snow this weekend and we saw tracks up high on that route; figured whomever it was had a great view from the top.

[RichP]

Sweet! Love that area.

[Dr. T]

Nice trip report. Thinking about doing this as a long day hike. How bad is that road getting in, got a Pontiac vibe that I’ve gotten to most trailheads with?

[NWtrax]

Those are some tasty views, great report!

[yukon222]

Another fun read of your adventures! Big Snow is a good one. I’ve camped overnight in the Spring and dayhiked in Summer - think I prefer the camp overnight to really enjoy the views.

[ozzy]

[zimmertr]

I've been up there three times in my Forester (8" clearance I think?). The last time I had to slowly pull into a perpendicular washout and rock the car up and over the other side. Other than that, it's just a badly cratered road IMO. Definitely doable with an SUV if you are experienced with driving forest roads.

[raising3hikers]

Must be climbing season, another cool TR by ozzy

[Dr. T]

Dope, thanks guys. Gonna give it a go

[puzzlr]

It's really fun to see what that gully up to Big Snow Lake looks like with snow in it. I bet there was a lot of water flowing under the snow where you didn't take shots -- and I get why you wouldn't. Big Snow is my favorite Middle Fork peak with several way to get up, all of them scenic and with their own attractions.

[Pyrites]

I do like Hollow Tree.

[zephyr]

Beautiful country, peak weather, and an inspirational report. Nice work, ozzy. ~z