South Ingalls Peak, Lake Ingalls — Saturday, May. 28, 2016

Snoqualmie Region > Salmon La Sac/Teanaway

We scrambled South Ingalls Peak on Sat., May 28th. The road to the Ingalls Pass trailhead had some wash-outs. Most but the last two were passable. The last one was right before the trailhead parking lot and was completely impassible. The one before that you could probably get past, but we did not try, as it was only an extra ~quarter mile to the trailhead. Trucks and high-clearance vehicles can make it that far, some cars, maybe not, or at least not without bottoming out. The trail to Ingalls Pass was in pretty good shape when not snow-covered, only a few obstacles here and there. Wild flowers were just starting to bloom lower down. We hit patchy snow around 5000 ft, and consistent snow from about 5800 feet on, and there was snow at the Long's Pass junction and on much of the Long's Pass trail as well. Headlight Basin and everything higher was still completely under snow. Lake Ingalls was still pretty frozen and also under snow. We were hoping the weather would break, but it didn't. Fortunately, it was snowing instead of raining. Snowed heavily on us as we ascended the gully to the col between North and South Ingalls; the gullies were completely snow-covered. We passed a pair of climbers on the first pitch of North Ingalls (if you guys read this, get in touch with me - I have an awesome photo of you on the rock in the blowing snow). The backside traverse was entirely snow as well; we cut up sharply to ascend a small gully, looking for harder snow, but didn't find much - probably not that much better than the bowl to the south would have been. We did not wear crampons on the way up at all, but did put them for the descent from the summit to the col. Probably should have put them on for the way up as well. Snow conditions were a layer of pretty unconsolidated wet over some more consolidated stuff that the crampons bit nicely. We had no views from the summit, but still an awesome climb. This was a great route in the snow, but in our conditions was pretty technical. Not possible without an axe and some technique, for sure, and the top would be dicey without crampons.

More Information on this Trip Report

• https://www.flickr.com/photos/brookpeterson/albums/72157669048472195