Ngie and I did not get up to Abernathy Peak, as we ran into deep snow that slowed our progress, as we were post holing with every step. We turned around at 6375 ft.
I spent the night in my car Friday night at the trailhead after doing another hike(Sawtooth View) in the Twisp area during the day on Friday. I was the only car there Friday night and it appeared that all the campgrounds along the Twisp River Road were empty also. Ngie pulled in just before 7 am, from driving in from the westside.(long drive).
It was quite cold(mid 20's) when we started at 7:20 am. There was no snow at trailhead, just frozen ground. Trail was kind of overgrown in places as it switchbacks up thru an old burn. We caught some excellent sunrise colors on the surrounding peaks, and on the way back we got to see more of the snow capped peaks. Just beautiful.
We started to run into snow on the trail around 5400 ft and it progressively got deeper. At around 5800 ft or so we were postholing on every step. At just past 6000 ft there is a small stream to cross that was a little difficult with the deep snow, as we could not see where the trail crossed the creek, and were unsure if we were walking on solid ground. We did not want to fall thru into the creek.
We pressed on to at least make it to Scatter Lake, but realized even with our effort, we still had 600 vertical ft to go, to just get to the lake. Abernathy Peak was only 1900 vertical feet to go, but in these conditions, it was not going to happen on this day. We expected snow, as we bought crampons and ice axes, but we did not think we were going to need snowshoes so early in the season.
First time for me up in this area, and it is just beautiful. Can hardly wait to get back in there. 8.2 miles with 3284 ft gain to where we turned around
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