Icicle Ridge

Blissman, E Mo, Rob, Dave, and Rich joined me for this hike up Icicle Ridge. We'd stayed at the Eightmile Campground the night before after instructing at the Everett Mountaineers scramble class on Saturday. This seemed like a fine destination for a bit of a work out for our sleep deprived and slightly hung over crew. Today was gorgeous and sunny, but hot. Certainly a change for us west siders and our typically 50ish degree days. We made quick work of hiking to the saddle and then out to the view point. After a snack and soaking in the views, Blissman, E Mo and myself said goodbye to the others who'd wanted to head home. We three wanted more. The idea was to get to a viewpoint much farther up the ridge where it levels off with some views to the south at around 5200 feet. We encountered consistent snow at about 4800 feet and lost the trail. No problem, we figured we'd head straight up to the ridge and follow it in snow, but the snow was quite rotten and we punched through often. The going became difficult and we were fairly dehydrated and overheated by this point so had a leisurely lunch with views out to Wedge Mt. and south. Very nice. We then started down choosing slidy forest duff to rotten snow, and returning to the trail for a hot, but pleasant trip back to our cars. We saw quite a few people today, but everyone seemed to stop at the saddle. We stopped for a quick beer at the Icicle Brewery......highly recommended.....and then home. No traffic jams on 2 today. Weird.