I heard/read many conflicting statements about how challenging Pugh was; a few can be found in this database! Having just climbed it, here's my conclusion: If you feel comfortable doing the Si haystack, which is a solid class 3, you will find Pugh quite easy, since the toughest section is no more than class 2+. I got a late start, about 1 pm from the trailhead. The first few miles are through pleasant forest on gentle to moderate switchbacks. Be sure you head left when you reach the lake at 1.5 miles or so. The 'bench' at the campsite straight ahead apparently doubles as a trail warning! At about 4 mi you come to the edge of the timber with views up to the pass. The next 1/2 to 3/4 miles up to stujack pass are fairly steep. The trail is dry, so bring plenty of water. No snow is on the trail, so leave your axes and crampons behind! The mile or so from the pass is mostly on a knife-edge trail reminiscent of Mt. katahdin (ME). Some exposure, and one section requiring use of hands, but not too tricky. There is somewhat of a false summit before you wind your way to the actual summit. I had decent views on the way up, but the summit itself was chilly, windy, and fogged in! There were about a dozen other climbers on this day (Sat); i was the last one up/down. Took me about 3hrs to the pass, another to the summit. A real fun trail, but if its scenery youre after, i hear Dickerman's out in bloom right now. Cheers.

What a great day for hiking! Talk about georgous! It was warm and sunny, but the trail is through forest for the entire length. I had never been to Lake Metan before, so I thought this would be a great day for the trip. It's only 1.5 miles to the lake and a measly 900ft. so this hike you can do with your kids. There a several pretty creek crossings and the lake is a great spot to cool off. It's a tough go from there to the top of Mt. Pugh. The rangers don't recommend anyone go further than the meadows unless you have climbing experience. Try this one, you'll be glad you did.

We figured Mt. Pugh in early season would be a good practice snow climb/endurance training. So, under drizzly skies and a not particularly encouraging weather forecast, Jakub and I loaded up the packs (about 65 lbs and 55 lbs respectively -- major groan factor!) and headed up. There are many blow-downs covering the trail, which slowed our pace a bit. The snow started around 4400'; Lake Metan, at 3180', is completely snow- and ice-free. The big meadow below Stujack Pass (5700') is filled with chunky avalanche debris. There didn't seem to be any recent slides or imminent danger but we crossed the diciest parts swiftly nonetheless. The wind has scoured the snow clean off of the scree just below the pass, exposing a bit of the trail (although it's safer to stick to the snow). In contrast, the lee side of the gap, just a few feet away, has several feet of snow accumulated into a shallow cornice. This is where we set up camp for the night after leaving the trailhead about 4.5 hours earlier. We weren't greeted with any monster views at the pass, as the weather hadn't improved at all, and while we were eating dinner it began to snow quite heavily for about an hour. We crawled into our sleeping bags and awoke the next morning to about 2"" of new snow and the pastoral sight of low, wet clouds slowly crawling up and down White Chuck Mountain to the north and Mount Forgotten to the south. As we cooked breakfast, we stared up the 60-degree snow slope leading to the summit... stared down at the undeniably recent avalanche tracks below us on the lee side of Stujack... contemplated the new snow, the clouds moving in on the windward side, and the inherent risk of a two-member party... and decided to call it a summit. We packed up and had a fun glissade down to the bottom of the avalanche bowl, where we picked a nice safe slope to whip out all that climbing gear we brought and practice two-person crevasse rescue scenarios (I won't mention a certain fatal mistake I made involving some 'clever' engineering to my rope setup that required setting up a separate double C system just to extricate myself from the trap I had created before I could properly ""rescue"" Jakub...). The weather even cleared up a little for us in the afternoon. All in all a worthwhile and educational trip. Remarkably, even though it was Memorial Day weekend, we only saw two other people the entire time.

Started out the day thinking that 5400 feet of elevation gain would be pretty brutal. I was pleasantly surprised of how well maintained the trail was and it never felt that we had gained that much elevation. Beautiful fall colors. Encountered fresh snow approximately at 5700 feet. Once we reached the pass and started up the ridge there was ice in places and fairly slick. About 3/4 across the ridge, two of our members decided to turn back bacause of the slickness. Two of the other members proceeded for the summit. Definitely icey on the scrambling portion. They had a great view from there and luckily the ice had somewhat melted for the descent. Otherwise would have been pretty tricky coming back off the scramble.