Caroline Peak — Thursday, Jul. 13, 2000

The approach to Caroline was made via the Snow Lake (3 feet of snow on shore) and Gem Lake (3 feet of snow and lake 95% frozen) trail. Once at Gem Lake continue around to the north where the trail continues. Stop at the pass before dropping down toward Wildcat Lakes. This will be your first glimpse of Caroline and a good place to determine your cross-country route. Beneath is a no-name lake. Follow the trail until the bottom where it crosses the outflow stream of this lake. Immediately jump onto the talus field here and angle SW toward Caroline. This talus field ends and one will cross briefly through forest and then descend 150' into a boulder gully. At the opposite side is another talus field which is about 450' tall and connects with trees at the top through a narrowing in the slabby rock wall. Go through there and then go south for 1,000' and then SW toward the summit. Almost beneath the summit itself is a ramp angling to the left which is taken to meet up with the summit ridge. The views of Kaleetan and Preacher are great. Across the valley is Garfield and the Leaning Spire can be appreciated from this vantage point. Lake Caroline beneath is as blue a lake as I have seen in the Cascades. One has a big-sky feeling when on this summit and certainly solitude as it is not climbed very often. It is critical to know that the USGS map mislabels this peak as Roosevelt. Roosevelt is a collection of crags to the NW of Kaleetan. For a mnemonic, Caroline Lake collects the snowmelt off Caroline Peak. 5 hrs up, 4 hrs down.