Mt. Persis

The route to Mt Persis Summit is physically exhausting, yet simple to navigate. From the trailhead we climbed east in a near straight line for about a mile to the NW ridge and its near-vertical east face, which we followed just over a mile to the top. The trail is well beaten and easy to spot, but also steep, overgrown, and very muddy. Even with no chance of rain I would recommend rain gear if you plan on hitting the trail in the early morning, before the dew is gone.

Upon reaching the summit the gps app for my phone showed that we were still a few hundred feet west of our planned destination, but looking east we could see nothing beyond the mound of snow that peaked less than 40' away and Neither of us were interested in stepping through a cornice, so we opted to keep our distance. Unfortunately thick clouds hid any views, and the icy wind kept us from lingering to see if they would part.

The snowline started around 4000' today, and we were lucky to have a few inches of fresh powder where the canopy hadn't caught it, making for low impact and solid footing. It rained light but steady for our whole trip and visibility was extremely low once we climbed into the clouds that sat at about 3500' feet until we finally drove away from the mountain.

I highly recommend this climb to those with a fair amount of backcountry experience, and curent snowpack conditions are excellent. Be sure to avoid the two small lakes/ponds 200' below and west of the summit, several tracks seemed to travel directly over them! And don't forget to enjoy some glissading on the descent!

To get there take road 62 off Highway 2 about 4 miles east of Gold Bar. Take the left turn 3.5 miles in, then the next left after another mile. About a mile from this last turn (which as of today has a red and white sign filled with bullet holes hanging from a nearby tree) the road ends a few hundred feet past the trail. The trail is hard to spot, but look across the road from where it is widened for a few parking spots.