Coleman Pinnacle, Ptarmigan Ridge — Monday, Sep. 30, 2024

Due to the annual route 542 tree trimming, the road was closed many miles below the trailhead starting around 7am so I passed through before that in time to get to a nice sunrise watching spot near the Ptarmigan/Chain lake Loop junction. (The 7am-4pm highway closures are scheduled to continue through Thursday). The trail had stretches of pretty frost heave (see pics), not too bad frost covered rocks, not too bad glazed ice and some pretty nasty black ice covered rocks. Luckily, the black ice was mainly only in the descent below the lake loop junction. All this led to some muddy stretches on the return. For my 23^rd Ptarmigan journey, I chose the Coleman Pinnacle scramble addition. I had not been up there for more than nine years. The usual scramble heads up the pinnacle’s west ridge after gaining its base west of Coleman on scree. The route up the pinnacle is on very solid rock, though with places of high exposure and one short bush whack through tiny trees. There was a slight dusting of snow on the pinnacles summit. Mount Baker’s dusting of snow was beautiful as were the fall colors. The road closure until 4pm left the trail nearly deserted. I only passed one couple and family of three during the last 3.5 miles back to the trailhead. From the top of the pinnacle, I saw about two dozen other early birders headed to Goat Lake or farther west.