Mount Rose — Friday, Jan. 11, 2013

Olympic Peninsula > Hood Canal

The wife and I wanted to play in some snow this weekend and Mount Rose seemed like the perfect opportunity. Especially given that it's just an hour from our driveway to her trailhead! Left early Saturday morning (well, not that early) and made the drive. Despite there being quite a bit of snow around Lake Cushman, the road is clear. Suprisingly, at the junction with the road to the Mount Ellinor trailhead, there is nearly two feet of snow yet as you head west to the Rose trailhead, the snow tapers off and the ground at the trailhead for Rose is completely clear. We set off at around 0830, the sky was party cloudy and the temp was approx. 25 degrees. The trail is clear and easy to follow up to the 1900' elevation (there is a sign there). At that point, the ground begins to show patches of very icy snow. At this point I was kicking myself for excluding my microspikes from my pack and relying only on our snowshoes which were of little use on this type of snowpack. By the time we hit the junction of the loop of the trail, the ground was completely covered in the hard snow. In addition the trail was becoming much more difficult to follow. We turned left at the junction for the more direct approach to the summit. But not long after we lost the trail and veered by my approximation too far west. After some grueling climbing in more treacherous conditions than I would have expected, we caught glimpses of tape in the trees and seemed to find the trail again. The slope gradually became less deep, and the snow began to turn to powder, perfect for snowshoing. As we leveled out on a ridge approaching the summit, the clouds broke and we were treated to amazing views of Ellinor at the other Olympics. We reached the summit a little after 12, and within five minutes our grand views were obstructed by clouds. The temp dropped and I did not want to have to find our way back in whiteout conditions. we quickly left the summit and followed our trail back down. Unfortunately, icy snow is much harder to descend then ascend and the wife lost her footing a few times. We also lost our trail for a while but were able to find our way back to the junction. The descent was slow going and I came to the conclusion that I will ALWAYS include my microspikes moving forward. We arrived back at the trailhead at about 4:00 PM. Tired, but satisfied with our strenous day. Even the few minutes of incredible views were worth all the exertion and we nearly had the mountain to ourselves, seeing only five other people. I will try to include some pictures later.