Sunday April 23rd - beautiful weather for a hike to Mineral Butte. Access is described in 55 Hikes Around Stevens Pass.

The total elevation gain is 3700 ft. I started at 1500 ft, the top is 5200 or so. Round trip was 11.5 miles. I spent 3.5 hours going up (due to the snow conditions) and 2 hours down.

I parked at the first switch back - approx. 1500 ft. It is possible with a SUV or sport ""cute"" to drive another 1 to 1.5 miles, but what's the point?

Snow began at 2200 ft and became continuous at 2500 ft.

More than half of this trip is on old logging roads. Some of which are accessible to ORVs. Judging by the tracks, a jeep - type vehicle had been up to 2500 ft or so the day before. I ran into two dirt bikes on my way out - they had just reached the snow, but seemed to think they were going higher. Another downside to some of the logging roads - they are overgrown with alder which tends to snap back in your face. I didn't think to bring my clippers.

Above 3500 ft or so you are walking cross country through woods and small glades. I've never been on this hike when there wasn't snow on the upper slopes, so I don't know if there is a trail.

There are fabulous views of Spire, Iron, Scott, Hubbard, Merchant, Gunn, the Monte Cristo picks, and too many more to name. I could see the Olympics and Rainier through a haze.

The last 1/4 mile was tough. The snow had a crust, which I broke through (with snow shoes) to my thighs. Going straight up the hill was very difficult in this situation. The crust softened up while I was on top, making the way down more consistent. The slope near the top is 25 to 30 percent. With the warming, there would seem to be the potential for wet snow slides. Be sure to assess the conditions before proceeding.

I passed one group going up (it didn't look like they were planning to go to the top) and and another group on my way out that appeared to be just out to play in the snow.

This would be a great trail if the upper stretches were closed to the ORVs.



S

I had a great time on Mineral Butte with Sadie's Driver. She has already posted a detailed report. It was a lot more crowded than I expected but the more feet the better when it comes to breaking trail in snow. We missed the summit by a few hundred feet but had a great day in the mountains.

I have now posted 25 photos at: http://www.hikingnorthwest.com. Go to ""Trips-2005"" on the left margin.

Well, this is actually a Sadie-less report. She is on a two-week hiatus from hiking. Her ""nose job"" went well - but we won't have the lab reports back for a few days. Fingers are crossed. In any event, Hiker Jim was up for a post-Thanksgiving snowshoe to work off a few mashed potatoes and a glob of stuffing, so we agreed to meet up at the 65th Park & Ride @ 7:30 this morning to head out to Mineral Butte. We had done some checking and it seemed that this was a pretty safe snowshoe route. The avalanche danger wasn't high, but there's the last 200 vertical feet that can be tricky on this route. To get there, drive out Hwy 2 to the turn-off for Index (about 15 miles east of Monroe). This will be a left turn on the North Fork Road - go past the turn-off for Index and follow the road for about 10 miles when you turn left across a non-descript bridge (It's actually FS 6330 - but I didn't see it signed. It's also called the Index-Galena Road - but again, I didnt see a sign.) The trail description can be found in the Stevens Pass 55 Hikes (Wild Sky Country) book. After you make this turn and cross the river, you go about 1 1/2 miles to the first major switchback. The book recommends parking there - but if you have a 4-wheel drive, decent clearing and confidence driving on a back road in the snow, go ahead and go another 1/2 - 3/4 mile up the road. There are a couple of other turn-around areas. In fact, we thought we would be the only ones out on this route, but imagine our surprise when we were hiking up the road to see TWO more cars above where we parked! We got onto the trail (logging road) at about 9:00 a.m. It was already starting to snow at 1400' where we left the car. By 1850' where we saw the first additional car, it was snowing harder and getting deeper. By the time we got to the second car at about 2100', the snow was now in big, puffy flakes and coming down hard. We trudged along the logging road - by now, definitely not a good idea to drive on, until we got to about 2900' - where we needed to put on our snowshoes. Note: there is quite a bit of alder growth over the trail and makes for stinging slaps to the face, if you're not careful. When you have your snowshoes on, it can make for some nasty tripping! We trudged on and immediately ran into one guy coming down the trail - he said that there were two up ahead of us who were continuing on to the summit. Good, we thought, we've got someone still up there breaking trail for us! Well, in about 1/4 of a mile we ran into two guys coming down - darn. They gave up! But the good news is they were with the first guy we saw and they said that there were, indeed, two more guys up above continuing on. These three had given up at about 3200' and decided it was more work than they were interested in. We trudged on. Finally, at about 3600' we ran into the other two guys - we'll call them ""Gung Ho Guys"" - they had the Ford Explorer that was parked the farthest up the logging road. They said they had started out at 8:30 a.m. and we were just catching up to them - deep snow and a fairly continual climb. We agreed we would take turns with them trudging up to the summit. Then, lo' and behold, up comes two guys behind us. The Two Daves. It turns out, one of the Daves was the first guy we had seen coming down. He ran into the second Dave (who got a late start) and the agreed to head for the summit. Well, Dave #1 is someone I would follow up a mountain trail anytime! The guy was an animal. He blew past us and motored right up the slope - it was like he had a homing beacon mounted on his head, because he seemed to be able to find the trail through the trees when none was obvious! So Dave, Dave, Jim and I set out for the summit. We crossed through the trees, where the snow wasn't as deep and slow. We kept climbing up to the ridge and then along the ridge towards the summit. There was some concern over the stability of the slope - since this was a fairly heavy snowfall on some pretty crusty stuff. It was steep in places, but doable. When we got to within about 200' of the summit (and about 1/4 mile) Jim and I decided that time was not on our side (it was about 1:30 p.m.), it would be almost dark by the time we made our way back to the car and the slope looked iffy. Dave and Dave were maneuvering carefully up the slope and veering toward the trees to a ridge that would take them to the summit. We headed down at that point - making it to just over 5000'. In a few hundred feet below, we ran into Gung Ho Guys - they were questioning how much farther they would go, too - given daylight, weariness, etc. We hoofed it back fairly quickly to a spot in some trees to have a bite of lunch and then headed to the car - taking our snowshoes off much lower than where we had put them on. There had been at least 4"" of new snow from the time we started out. We got back to the car at about 4:20 p.m. - daylight was definitely waning. In about 15 minutes, Dave #2 got back to his car (also near ours) and said he had waited for 45 minutes for Dave #1 to summit. Dave #2 stopped where we did, but stayed there to ensure that Dave #1 was ok. The Gung Ho guys didn't make it to that point but turned around short of our turn around spot. Funny, we never saw them on the descent - even when we stopped for lunch. Anyway, a great day out on Mineral Butte. It was cold (27-30 degrees) and lots of new snow. So, if you're making this trek, be prepared - and see if you can find Dave #1, he's awesome! Wasn't the same without Sadie-Lady. But she'll be back soon.