One and done. Beautiful iconic peak with stunning views from the summit, but the most unpleasant climb I've ever done. Class 3+ dirt and ash climbing for the first 2k feet, followed by a brief nice ridge walk through the burned forest, until you get to more steep class 2 dirt, a long boulder field, more steep class 2+ dirt, and finally a little bit of decent scrambling on solid rock and some boulders. If there was a nicer trail up the steep dirt, maybe a switchback or two, the rest of the climb was actually pretty nice. The boulder field was actually quite easy and somewhat fun to navigate with mostly flat and solid stepping points. But the hours of 45 degree dirt, loose rock and veggie belays suck the life out of your soul. Going down was easier than going up, but it still sucked.
The route mostly follows the Gaia unmaintained track, though it's a bit more direct. The cairns and ribbons throughout the climb were VERY helpful for route finding. We only got significantly off route at one point where it appeared the obvious route went back up to the ridge where most of the trail had been, but it traps you into very steep loose terrain. We attempted to down scramble, but it was very sketchy and decided to bail back to the trail, wasting a full hour on this ordeal. I added some gps waypoints of this area in my peakbagger post, and also tried adding a couple cairns near here since there was no flagging to be seen.
Type of Hike
Day hikeTrail Conditions
Trail difficult/impossible to navigate:Trees down across trail,
Muddy or wet trail,
Overgrown in places.
Road
Road rough but passableBugs
No bugsSnow
Snow free
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