Although there are several routes to the top of Summit Chief, we chose to ascend via the Pete Lake trailhead (elevation 2800'). At 7464', Summit Chief is the highest of the ""Chief"" peaks also including ""Middle Chief"" (7120') and ""Little Big Chief"" (7225'). The views from the summit are surely incredible looking out over the Cle Elum drainage and back down the MFK Snoqualmie valley; however, we only saw a lot of drizzle and low clouds and not much else this day.

Craig and I got a reasonable start (or so we thought) at 8:15 and leisurely made our way up the painfully flat (more on this later) trail toward Pete Lake. From Pete Lake we continued around to its far end coming to a 3-way intersection at Lemah Creek. We went NW is search of the PCT finally reaching it at 5.5 miles from the trailhead, elevation 3200'. As we headed north, there were good views over to the watercourses coming off the small glaciers at the base of Chimney Rock, but everything above 5500' was socked in by a sea of mist and fog. We spent the next 1.5-2 hours hauling ourselves up the endless, long switchbacks toward ""Vista Lakes"" which are the two small tarns at 5450' just off of the PCT. Elevation gain on this route is a long time in coming and it was a relief to finally stomp out a couple thousand. We reached the lakes about 4 hours after starting which seemed reasonable considering we were moving at less than our normal ""hurry up"" pace. Amongst the fog and drizzle, the lakes made for a fine spot to tank up on food and water and ponder the last stretch of our route to Summit Chief.

We headed NW up to a pass just SE of point 5965'. We traversed around and to the north of this point and then dropped slightly to the pass above Summit Chief Lake. From here we had a lot of fun, easy scrambling on polished granite just east of the ridge crest. We followed the line of the ridge (more or less) to about 6400' where we dropped into a snow field just above the lower of two distinct basins on the SE slopes of the mountain. We ascended the medium-steep snow to the upper basin (entirely snow) at 6700'. This is where things got ""fun"" for us. We still had not had a single look at the mountain or any of its immediate ridgelines, so where to gain the SE (more south at this point) ridge was not entirely obvious. We watched as the high winds swirled the fog in and out of the basin and every now and then, for a brief second, the ridge would peak out. Well, after several minutes of this we essentially guessed at a route to the top in the general direction we knew we needed to head. We ascended snow to the ridgeline and then walked along toward the summit a bit until we got to a high point above a notch. We couldn't down-climb to the notch (class 5), so we walked back down the ridge and I ended up skirting below some cliffs to get to the notch. I again hopped on the ridge and after a little class 3 rock I once again found myself stuck on top of a high point just above another notch. From here I could make out the summit and the route we needed to take, but this time it was an exposed, class 4 down-climb. I was uncomfortable making the unbalanced moves with the wind knocking me around and the crappy rock giving me no support. I retreated again. I found Craig waiting for me back at the first notch and we discussed options. We were well past any logical turn around time and 12.5 miles from anywhere, but we decided since we were here that we'd give it another try. Next, we traversed steep snow in an attempt to gain the ridge near the second notch I had gotten stuck above. This time we ran into moat problems and could not access the rock just a few feet below the notch! Frustrated, we glissaded back down into the basin. Feeling rejected by Summit Chief, we searched one last time for a way to access the ridge. At this point things had cleared up enough that we noticed a subtle shelf going along the SE face of the mountain that looked like it would take us up near that darned second notch. It did. After nearly 2 hours we had finally puzzled this one out. Craig, had decided to sit the rest of the route out as it was still unsure whether the route would go and given the last 2 hours I don't blame him. After some steep scree and ugly dirt sections I accessed the shelf and ran it over to the notch. I punched through and looped around to the other side where an easy gully took me all the way up to the summit ridge. From here it was 60 ft or so of class 2 rock to the top. It had taken 9 long hours to summit this thing, but it was well worth it and I was happy to be there. I stayed maybe 5-10 minutes before the wet and windy conditions forced me off. I descended back to the notch and then into the basin where Craig was waiting. We started back for Vista Lakes around 6:00 PM and finally made it just before dark around 8:15.

With all the off trail travel behind us, we took a comfortable break at the southern most of the lakes and I finally decided to eat something more than a Clif Bar. We departed at 9:00 under complete darkness with only 10 miles between us and the trailhead. Things went fine on the way out and we kept a steady conversation going to make the miles go by that much faster. Upon reaching the Pete Lake trail at the 3-way intersection near Lemah Creek, I started realizing how tired I was and the fact that the both of us had only a few hours of sleep the night before wasn't helping matters. Around midnight, we sprawled out along the trail to rest the feet awhile before pushing out the last 5 miles. After about 20 minutes we were both on the brink of passing out, so we decided we'd better get moving or we'd still be here when horses and people were stomping through in a few hours. It was all I could do to stay on my feet those last 5 miles. I hobbled and stumbled my way along seemingly asleep on my feet, but we finally mad it back at 2:15 AM, 18 hours after we'd started! We’d planned on climbing Daniel the next day, but given our condition that idea was, well, out. Instead we opted to drive back to Seattle and all it took to make the drive work were two cans of Red Bull and a large cup of coffee! Back in Seattle at 4:30 AM, 24 hours after starting .

Although it was a spectacular outing on several accounts, I cannot recommend doing Summit Chief as a ""day trip"" at least via Pete Lake. In the end, this turned into 26 miles and 5600' of gain. Next time I'm bringing a tent!

Hiked PCT (#2000) from Snoqualmie Pass to Pete Lake Trail (#1323)and exited at Cooper Lake. Trail was in good condition and free of snow except for a few very minor patches between Kendall Katwalk and Ridge Lake. Camped at Ridge Lake, Lower Park Lake, and Spectacle Lake. Bugs were very bad at the first two but moderate at Spectacle. We were alone at Park Lake but Spectacle Lake was busy, even at mid-week. Not sure I would want to be there on a weekend. Kendall Gardens were lush with shades of green and some wild flowers. Rainier views from Chikamin-Huckleberry Pass were fantastic. Continuous great views along Chikamin Ridge. Some sections of the ridge trail required full attention as exposure was significant. Tried bushwhack from Spectacle Lake to Glacier Lake but started too late in the day and turned back. The route is a very faint game trail that peters out about half way up the outlet stream. Another group made it to Glacier and reported it as well worth the thrashing to get there. Hike out via Pete Lake was very dusty and uninteresting. Horses have totally pounded the trail between Pete lake and Cooper Lake. Ford at Cooper River was calf deep and cold but otherwise uneventful, easily managed by our 11 year old son and our golden retriever puppy.

On Thursday 7/25/2002 at 1:30pm my brother and I started at the Pete Lake (Trail 1323) trail head. Two other backpackers pulled in just as we pulled on our packs on. When we told them our plans to hike in to Pete Lake and camp and then continue on to Spectacle Lake the next day, they announced that they planned to do the same thing. The hike to Pete Lake was pleasant enough with mosquitoes being a small annoyance only in a couple of spots. For the most part keeping feet dry was not a problem as there was always rocks or foot logs placed appropriately. There was a twenty-foot stretch of the trail that had become a muddy mess. I was amazed at how much the trail was marked by horse droppings. When we arrived at Pete Lake two hours later, there were already two campsites occupied and the prospect of more campers coming. Not wanting to be part of a crowd and wanting to enjoy the solitude of the backcountry, we decided to push on, hoping to find a campsite closer to our ultimate goal of Spectacle Lake. Almost immediately we started to encounter blowdowns. At one point not far from the west end of Pete Lake we crossed a blowdown and followed the trail to the left, which ended at Lemah Creek. If a crossing was intended, this was not a good location to ford Lemah Creek as the creek was wide, fast, and high. Consulting the Green Trails map we realized that this was not the first location for crossing Lemah Creek. We back tracked to the blowdown and scouted around and discovered that there was a second blowdown that obscured the true trail. The most eventful part of this section of the trail was the swarms of voracious mosquitoes. We continued along the trail and found ourselves eventually at the junction with the PCT. This was our first time on this trail and in retrospect we missed the first crossing of Lemah Creek that is described in the trail guide as a place to cross on “footlogs” or via boulder hopping and ended up taking the longer route which is shown on the Green Trails map as adding 1.9 miles both ways. I do remember the location where the trail dips down to Lemah Creek. There were several places to camp if you could put up with the mosquitoes. Anyway there were no footlogs or good boulders to make the crossing on. As with our first encounter with Lemah Creek, the creek at this point was still wide, high, and fast. We would have ended up taking the longer route anyway. As soon as we turned on to the PCT there was a massive blowdown that required a good balancing act to traverse the length of the tree and a bone jarring four-foot drop to the trail with a full pack. I didn’t count them on the way up to Spectacle Lake, but on the way out I counted 45 blowdowns from Spectacle Lake to Pete Lake. The blowdowns ranged from easy to outright difficult. At the footbridge crossing of Lemah Creek we stopped and camped at a very nice campsite on the eastside of the creek. It is amazing how much better I sleep with the sound of cascading water nearby. There was another party that showed up at the bridge but they camped on the other side of the creek and were basically out of site and out of mind. After breakfast we pushed on to Spectacle Lake. We crossed paths only once with other hikers and the rest of the time we had the trail to ourselves. We found the “staircase” trail up to the lake, but decided to stay on the maintained trail. If we had left our packs stashed somewhere we would have done it, but with full packs we decided that the main trail was our best bet. During this stretch at one blowdown I was holding onto a branch to pull myself up over the tree when the branch broke and I landed flat on my back(pack). At least my fall was cushioned. As we traversed the many switchbacks and quickly gained altitude, the views improved from beautiful old growth forest to spectacular vistas of the surrounding mountains and valleys. Since the longer route to Spectacle Lake appears to be the most widely used the trail guide should recognize the high point elevation is several hundred feet higher than the 4350-ft described in the guide. The views at Spectacle Lake were breath taking. I hope that the pictures I took will do them justice. We made camp there at the lake and minus our packs did some exploring. I was curious about the “staircase” route so I scouted around to the lake’s outlet. There was a large tree trunk dropped across the outlet (otherwise it would have been impassible) that served as a good footbridge. One slip however, and that would be the end. Within ten feet of the crossing the outlet from the lake quickly narrows to a chute and the water picks up considerable speed. Another ten feet later the water crashes down 30 to 40 feet to a jumble of boulders and logs. From there I found the trail thanks to some well-placed cairns. The trail is fairly easy until you reach the “staircase.” The “staircase” is more like a ladder and would be very difficult with a full pack. Without a pack it took me 20 minutes to reach the lake from the main trail. Back up at the lake, among the spider web of trails I discovered twin anthills (towers). One was 3 feet tall and the other was 2 ½ feet tall. We spent the night at the lake. The wind really moves down through the basin and one point in the night it felt as though the tent was going to be ripped apart. The next day we hiked all the way out. It was an enjoyable three days of backpacking. P.S. I’m glad we started in the middle of the week because Saturday the trail from Pete Lake to the trailhead was clogged with hikers, horses, and dogs. The rules require dogs to be on leash on the trail, but of the half dozen dogs that we came across not a single one was on leash. Most of the dogs seemed really nice, but a couple were fairly scary and well out in front of the owners. Please people, leave your pets at home or with a friend, or at least be more responsible about it.

MOSQUITOES! Mosquitoes, mosquitoes, mosquitoes! And...did I mention mosquitoes? We were PLANNING to backpack into Pete Lake and spend the night there, but we got about a mile down the Pete Lake trail and decided to turn around, after INHALING mosquitoes. Very marshy conditions on both sides of the trail are heaven for breeding mosquitoes. We ran back to the car, headed to Ellensburg, and backpacked at a higher elevation/drier conditions, which avoided most of the mosquitoes. I suggest you do the same!!!!