Yellow Aster Butte
Sep 07, 1998
- Type of Outing
- Day hike
- Read More in our Hiking Guide
- Hike: Yellow Aster Butte
- Region: North Cascades -- Mount Baker Highway
- Agency: Mount Baker Ranger District
- Trails: Yellow Aster Butte (#699)
- Avg Rating: 4.28
Trail starts off
as a huffer-puffer through steaming second growth and gets harder, through loose dirt channels in the open. Made it to a campsite in 2 hrs, despite some bouts of foraging. Forecast called for morning fog, so headed NNW off to Tomyhoi, hoping it was still doable in the waning hours of the late autumn afternoon. This section of trail is a heartbreaker, constantly dropping and regaining elevation. Crossing the 6"" wide tip of the glacier is still necessary, making me wish my ice ax was not being used as a deadman at camp, although it would have done little in the prevention department. The gully straight up from the glacier is melted out and exposed; a better route up and down is slightly to the right. The final descent / ascent is straight up some pleasant and exposed class 3. Views were just grand, solitary, wild and naked. The trail back is very easy to lose - easy to navigate in the sun, but could get ugly in fog (remember your compasses). The blindingly full moon rose over the basin, illuminating every mountain and tarn and nearly instigating a midnight hike up Yellow Aster Butte. Alas, sleep prevented it until the am, but the popular double summitted mountain was very lonely at that early hour. Made it back in 1.5 hrs, thinking the trail up should still be called ""Keep Kool"", but the way down should be renamed ""Just TRY not to blow out your knees (hahahaha)"".
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