I came for the Wenatchee Backcourt check off.. and am leaving here with awesome views! I am surprised this wasn’t on my radar before and isn’t widely advertised on WTA, cause it’s awesome.
Road Conditions
The road to the upper trailhead is a hot mess. It’s narrow, steep in areas, and due to extensive rutting, I advise parking a mile or two down the road and walking the rest of the way to the trailhead. There’s a sign with “300” on it that marks the turn off.
I drove a bit further, but stopped 0.6 miles from the upper trailhead because there was enough snow that I was worried about getting pushed off the side of the road. Some bikes and ORVs pushed further, but stopped 0.3 miles from the trailhead.
Someone got stuck on the way in as I was driving out. I spent about 30 minutes trying to push him out, but called in support from WORN (Washington Off-Road Network).
Will be reporting the road issues to folks, since this is a well-traveled road later on in the summertime.
Trail Conditions
The trail is completely covered in snow right now, apart from the last 200’ up the ridge. Careful route finding is required as there are a number of blowdowns over the trail, and the trail crosses a few avalanche fields and goes by some small cornices.
I observed surface level avalanche issues (wet loose), when I disturbed the snowpack, but the snow is consolidated otherwise.
I opted to go up talus partway instead of going over the snow, since I didn’t know how large the boulders were and snow coverage was sporadic, but in retrospect, going over the snow would have likely been fine for the most part.
I wore shorts and a T-shirt because it was so warm, which was nice, but also a bit of a bad idea at times in the snow.
The way I went through the snow was cross country “snow whacking”. I’m not posting my GPS track publicly since the way I went doesn’t follow the trail and (when melted) would go over high impact areas.
I heard pika near the summit, and was able to see Dakobed, Tahoma, Pahto, the Stuart Range, east Teanaway/Salmon la Sac, Goat Rocks, the Tatoosh, Chelan Sawtooths, Pasayten, Wenatchee, the Palouse, the Columbia River, and so much more. I feel so lucky to be up here when it’s so quiet.
I attached the Wenatchee Outdoors link, which is very helpful when trying to visit this awesome place :).
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