Trip Reports

Played hooky from work today, and after a somewhat late start, decided to shlep on up to the basin for a bit of fresh air. When I arrived at the Summit Central parking lot, there was absolutely nobody else there, which was exactly what I was hoping for. The snow was coming down rather forcefully as I set off for the trees. Right at the start, there was easily 6"" of new, powdery snow and no real foot track to speak of, so it was slow going. It appeared that a skier and snowboarder had preceded me, however; without any real destination in mind, I decided to follow their path to wherever they ended up going. Given how late in the season it was, I was concerned about avalanche risk from sunlight pressure, but there would be practically none of that today - save for a 5-minute break in the clouds, it was either snowing or snowing harder the entire time I was out.

The basin itself was pleasant enough - the fresh snow made for slow but comfortable travel, and the temps were cool enough (low-30s at that point) for the trees to refrain from launching their snowy munitions at me. For those of you planning to venture out to the basin this weekend, be careful on the snow bridge at the main fording point over the creek. It's not exactly robust anymore, and a misstep might earn you a premature (and very cold) bath. It almost happened to me both on the way in and the way out, which should tell you something about my level of clumsiness. Fred Astaire I ain't.

I continued following the ski track down the gulch to the left where the valley splits into two. After maybe a half mile after the fork, the path abruptly went left and directly up the hill toward Cave Ridge. These guys (or gals) didn't waste any time - their path essentially went straight up the 45-degree slope. The deep, unconsolidated snow made for very difficult climbing; at several points, I was snowplowing up to my knees even with my Denali Evos.

At about 4500', I met my first unavoidable open slope. Under almost any other spring condition, the structure and incline of the slope would have incited me to simply turn around for fear of becoming another tragic statistic. But for today, it wasn't spring; it was more like mid-January, what with it having fallen to the mid- to upper-20s and the snow being so powdery and well-integrated with the layers underneath. I gave the snowpack several cautious pokes on the way up just to be sure.

My beplanked friends evidently decided that the top of the last open slope, at about 4900' , was enough climbing for the day. I had been admiring their clean lines up to this point, and not having had the foresight to bring my own snowboard, could only vicariously experience what must have been pure powdery bliss. In any case, I figured that I might as well make a trip of it and finish up at point 5270, just a few clicks to the north. About five minutes later, I stepped up to the nondescript high point and was greeted with beautiful views of trees, clouds, and snow ... pretty much the same as 2200 feet below. Except at the ridgetop, the wind was howling, the snow was doing its best to fill every pore in my face, and I doubt it was much above 25 degrees. This was certainly a case of the reward being the journey. I gathered my wits and hightailed it back down to my car in half the time it took me to go up. Total car to car time was around two and a half hours

What with spring finally arriving for good this weekend (they're expecting 60s and 70s in the lowlands), caveat emptor for anyone making this trek during and after the big warmup. All of that beautiful new powder over the last week is going to turn into Cascade concrete and come barrelling down the chutes. Be careful out there!

More pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/dinglehoser/sets/72157604718129956/

Plan was to reach Snoqualmie Mountain summit via Commonwealth Basin, turnoff around Guye Peak, over Cave Ridge, then on to the summit. I was expecting heavy rain and wind but most of trip had only heavy drizzle. Commonwealth creek was running no higher than when I last saw it in July. Huckleberries were excellent at all elevations and on all heights of bushes. Reached snow just before Cave Ridge (around 4800') and stopped to pick huckleberries at the top of the ridge, rather than risk complete loss of visibility and slippery footing on the snow leading up to Sno Mtn. Rain gear was inadequate for walking through wet brush for so many miles.

There was snow on the trail. :) Lots of delicious fresh powder.

Creek crossing entering Commonwealth is low and well established with climbs down/up surrounding snow banks.

If you want to be lazy, head up in late morning/early afternoon for any climbs. Save yourself the effort of building your own track and make those silly early birds do it for you.

We built a little track up the backside of Guye Peak over a good crossing near the second, western creek to a safe camp. If the snow hasn't covered it yet, beyond our camp there's a track leading up to the saddle and then splitting off toward Cave Ridge.

Had originally planned on doing Lennox Mountain via Bear Lake, but the poor weather promised equally as poor views so we opted for Snoqualmie Mountain. We found only one other car in the Snow Lake Trailhead at 7:30 am, which must be some kind of low record. The direct route from the trailhead wastes no time with switchbacks. It climbs straight to the ridge and then right to the summit. Snow didn't cover the trail until well up the ridge, probably around 5700 feet. Views opened up briefly a couple of times as we huddled against the wind and drizzle on the summit, but mostly we enjoyed watching the trees and ridge swim in and out of the clouds.

Tempted by pockets of blue sky, we climbed up Cave Ridge to try and find the caves. I'd seen one 9 years ago, but couldn't find it today. The sun shone briefly and views opened while on the ridge top, leading us towards Guye. Unfortunately, as we headed over to the ridge the skies opened and the first steady rain of the day fell. Not wanting to fool around on wet rock between the north and middle summits, we headed down to the car. It was a good outing, though I'm ready for a sunny outing about now.

Stats: 2.5 hours to top of Snoqualmie; 7 hours car-to-car.

Follow-up report for Wolfs post from two days ago. Our approach was from Commonwealth Basin instead of the Snow Lake TH. Patchy snow begins at upper PCT parking lot. Route follows Old Cascade Crest Trail until crossing of Commonwealth Creek, then turns L instead of following main trail, tracking along W side of basin. Eventually it heads uphill to the saddle between Guye Peak and Cave Ridge. Route is somewhat difficult to follow due to snow: blowdowns haven't been cut and the trail is covered with brush, so clues to the trail location are rare. All streams were running due to 4.5"" rain equivalent precip in prior 24 hrs. We stopped at the saddle, which had taken us almost 2 hrs to reach with the route finding and the snow. Max snow depth on saddle was about 2 feet. Trip down took 1 hr.

First time I've been up the route that starts right at the Alpental parking lot. It's steep but not noticably so until you start back down. The route is a mixture of dirt rocks compact snow and dead leaves in various formulations. Poles would be handy. On a day with freezing temps this trail would be no fun at all, as there are a lot of steep drop offs if you happened to slip, and there is ice as well as compact snow in spots. Snow was intermittent all the way up, the most snow was encountered while exploring the top of Cave Ridge and the hanging valley below, and maybe max 8 inches deep. Moderate temperatures along with some interesting cloud formations, some had that 'winter's coming' sort of look.

this destination is located between snoqualmie mountain and guye peak--just east above the alpental parking lot.

this was a sunny day to hike, but there was rain the night before. so with the trail overgrown near the top of the treeline, i ended up soaked from the chest down--not a good condition given that i was solo and the temperatures were in the high-risk hypothermia range.

to get to the caves, take the unmarked overgrown entry just to the right of the trailhead to snow lake. there is lots of mud-covered talus. the one major blowdown marks a kink in the trail. note it and go left. a little higher up is the one exposure crossing some rocks--just walk close to the mtn to avoid it. in 45 minutes, you reach a fork just in front of a rock face--this is lower cave ridge. the only trail sign is nailed high on a tree on the left. take the switchbacks thru the rockfield to the right of the fork. about 2/3 up the field, the path straightens out and goes to the right. you will see cairns marking the route thru the rocks. keeping the rockwall on your left, just circle counterclockwise and rise up the incline. do NOT take the turnoff and attempt to climb the rocks.

the trail is well-trodden. unfortunately, there are many bunny trails up high. bear left and up. the one tricky route-finding is thru the area of pits. i suggest you mark the correct turnoffs either mentally, or with tape or made cairns [the reason is given below]. look back here frequently to see how the trail will look going back down. the critical route decision is the turnoff to guye peak--but where that turnoff[s] is is unclear. if you run into a second rockband, bear left. in general, you want to stay left. when you appear at the overlooks to the dry creekbed between cave ridge and snoqualmie mtn--above the second rockband, you will know that you are on the right trail. there are 2-3 such overlooks. keep switchbacking up. there is a final pit--the biggest one that you will pass-- just a hundred feet below the top of the ridge. unlike the other pits, it is out in the sun with no trees around. a sign down ten feet below the surface marks the cave. this is the cave!

i bumped into a party of 4 guys who were on their 4th try to find the cave--who finally found it. with all the bunny trails, it was clear how difficult this routefinding is. one in the party said the pit goes down 20 feet, then the cave starts. unfortunately, they had only one small rope that they were anchoring at ground level for the pit descent. suggest that you take a 2nd one into the cave. headlamps, of course, are a must. hardhats are not a bad idea, either.

i wasn't caving. so i continued up the trail to the top. there were several well constructed camping spots plus obvious old fire places. in the sun, there are some great places to stretch out for a suntan and dryout. looking east, you can see the small tarn and the top of the dry creekbed. looking south, you can see guy peak.

deciding to call it a day, i went back down the trail. however, i got lost in the bunny trails, and ended up at the lowest overlook in full view of the bottom of the dry creekbed. so i scrambled down, and headed back up snoqualmie mtn taking the middle of the 3 likely routes back to the trees on the left. once in the trees, i just traversed hoizontally and did easily find the trail to snoqualmie mtn. downclimbing, i finally returned back to the fork.

if you end up in the dry creekbed, do NOT continue down the bed. the rocks get steep and they are wet--dangerous footing.

such a small adventure for what is otherwise an easy hike!

Spent Memorial Day hiking to Cave Ridge via Commonwealth creek.

Parked near small ski area on Alpental Road north of the turnoff for Commonwealth Creek campground. Traveled north of Commonwealth Creek crossing creek basin from Guye Peak/Cave Ridge. Followed small ridge on east side of creek basin to steep area. Crossed to the west and climbed NW on ridge between two basins to a saddle north of Guye Peak. Followed ridge north and then NE to Cave Ridge. Nice views of peaks all around Pass area.

Followed same general route on descent but stayed north and west of creek basins. Somewhat steeper descending from saddle but no major problems.

Encountered rain in North Bend driving to and from Snoqualime Pass but no rain while hiking. Had some sun breaks and we saw no one else all day long.

Encountered snow entire trip but did not need snowshoes.

Went up Snoqualmie Peak via the unsigned trail that starts just beside the Snow Lake trailhead.

The trail is in great shape with one major blowdown just below the junction at the saddle between Snoqualmie and Guye.

There were a few tiny patches of snow after the waterfall on the way up Snoqualmie. Lots of snow in the basins to the north.

Hot weather and gorgeous views! 1.5 hours to the top from the trailhead. On the way down I went on a ramble over to Cave Ridge and found an amazing clear pond high above the top of the waterfall, along a faint trail.

Round Trip Distance: about 4 miles, Elevation Gain: 3,200 ft, High Point: 6,278 ft

Directions: take exit 52 when heading east on I-90 (there is no exit 52 when heading west). Make a left, go under I-90 and skip the first road on the right (which heads to the PCT parking lot). Take the second right and drive up past ski chalets till you get to the Alpental parking lot. When facing the Snow Lake trail at the trailhead, turn right and walk about 50 ft along the road till you see a bare spot of ground where there used to be a pile of dirt. There is a very obvious trail heading up into the small trees and brush. You can’t miss it.

We arrived at the Alpental parking lot about 9AM on this bright, sunny day. The lot had already about 20 cars in it, and it seemed that another one was arriving every minute. We parked next to some guy that was putting on ski boots. He planned to carry his skis and wear the boots up the Snow Lake trail to do some skiing! This seemed crazy to me, as there was very little snow left and it was extremely icy. He must have been trying to prove something. Anyway, he was friendly and certainly new what he was doing.

There was a real pretty, very three-dimensional frost covering the foliage in the cool early morning. The recent clear and cold nights had helped the leaves turn bright colors. What a perfect day to go hiking! The trail was steep, but it’s in good shape. There is no bushwhacking involved at all. For a while you follow the rocks of a dry streambed. A couple of old signs along the way warn of the danger of artillery during the winter avalanche control season. This trial would have some moderate to serious avalanche danger in the winter.

After a while, you come to a spot where you see some cliffs a distance uphill. This is where the trail branches. The right branch goes up to Guye peak over a rocky slope and the left heads to Snoqualmie Mt through a forest. There is a sign up in tree pointing directions. A little while later on the Snoqualmie Mt trail you come to a crossing of a waterfall. This was a very pretty spot. The crossing was completely unchallenging at this time of the year. There were very nice views to Mt Rainier and across the valley to Denny Mt. After a while the trees become sparse and smaller and you get views down to Guye Peak which looks like a castle.

The views get better and better. At no point does this hike become ""airy"" or really exposed. If there is no snow, this hike is ""a piece of cake"". When I got to the top, I was wishing I could keep climbing, as I was not tired. The views from the summit are among the very best in the entire Snoqualmie Pass area. That may not be a big surprise knowing that Snoqualmie Mt is the highest peak around. Higher than Chair, Kaleetan, Silver, Kendall Peaks … The only thing around that’s higher is Mt Thompson to the northeast. There was a dusting of snow up at the top with wind-formed large, horizontal ice crystals stuck in the trees. There is a nearby rocky pinnacle to the east of the summit. It might be higher than the end of the trail, but we went over near the pinnacle and looked back and I could say the same thing about the summit we just stood on. There were some deep snow/ice fields on the north side of the mountain that are well on their way to becoming real glaciers if we continue to get heavy snow winters like the last one.

On the way down we visited Cave Ridge. Caves were not hard to find at all. We found about a dozen and a half. A lot of the cave entrances where real small. Many were too small for a human, and all were slimy and not very inviting on such a pretty day. We noticed official cave registers at a couple of openings. We hiked the trail that follows the ridge to the saddle between Cave Ridge and Guye Peak. There is a nice pond here. Water is not hard to find on Cave Ridge either. We took the Guye Peak trail back to the junction with the Snoqualmie Mt trail. On a clear day, this is a four star hike. It’s steep, but if your knees can handle it, I highly recommend it.

Cave Ridge. A solo snowshoe trip, first of season, inspired by the massive 4-7 feet of snowfall the preceding week. Parked at N end of Snoqualmie Summit Ski Area and hiked to horse trailhead of PCT, where snowshoes went on. Proceeded on rising NNE traverse into flat bottom of Commonwealth Ck., crossed several branches of creek, then hugged E base of Guye Pk. until reaching drainage coming down from Guye-Cave Ridge saddle. Climbed easy slopes along N side of this stream to saddle, then N to summit of Cave Ridge (Pt. 5270). Took same route down, except stayed N of creek around S side of Guye, coming down through small private ski area to Alpenthal Road. On way up, followed day-old snowshoe tracks from trailhead most of way to where they ended at 4800 ft. N of saddle, saving a huge amount of work. On way down encountered a maze of new tracks in basin, including boot prints up to 4200 ft. in saddle drainage. Up to saddle, surface was mostly crusty powder or, under trees, hard packed and even icy; above, it was increasingly deep unconsolidated powder. Snowshoes sinking in a good 18 in. last 200 ft. to summit, making for an exhausting, tedious, discouraging slog in my current mediocre conditioning. Weather clear at first, giving good views from saddle, especially of Guye, but clouds closed in above there, so could only see Snoqualmie from top. Opened up nicely again on way down, to show all of local peaks in snowbound finery as sun set. 3 hrs. 50 min. up 2 hrs. 35 min. down 5-1/2 mi. roundtrip and 2300 vertical ft.

The Alpine
Lakes - We hiked up the PCT to Commonwealth Basin on anattempt to find the caves at Cave Ridge. Unfortunately,dad's routefinding was a bit off, and the brush thick,so we backed down to the basin and hiked up toRed Mt. The PCT to Commonwealth Basin is snow free,but the basin itself still has some large areas ofsnow. I'd wait a couple weeks unless you like soggycampsites or camping on snow.

The trail to Red Mt. is nearly bare of snow untilnear the mountain. There are some large blowdownsand tricky river crossings unless you don't mindwading. (The crossing just before CommonwealthBasin would be difficult for children unless theywaded too, but the wading would be easy). Red Mt.is a satisfying climb up loose rocks and some scree.Grande Views though!! It's 1000' above the lake,which is thawed but the shoreline snowcovered.

The old PCT is covered in snow about halfway fromthe basin to the trailhead. One difficult streamcrossing if you don't have a pole -- slippery log!)