Mount Washington

After driving almost up to Snoqualmie Pass; we turned back deciding on Mt Washington. Since I had not been out recently, I was hoping for something a little less rigorous and I was pretty fried at the end of the day. The weather was a mix of rain, snow, sun, and all combinations in between. There was snow and slush on the trail after a few hundred feet of gain and gaitors were important from the Owl Spot onward. We donned snowshoes a short ways past the "Pond". Only one person made it to the summit without snowshoes - he was young and Germanic - our group was neither of those. A track was punched in on the trail until the last 250 vertical feet. From here the route was a "diretissima" approach - straight up. Our choices were break trail on a steep side sloping hillside or follow the previous tracks straight up. Did I mention that it was straight up? The rest step became my new BFF. There were also comments about how steep this was going to be coming down. We went straight up.


The clouds broke periodically for nearby views and the wind was calmer than ususal at the summit which made for a nice lunch. Fortunately, the trip down was uneventful except for my screaming quads.