Red Mountain (Commonwealth Basin) — Thursday, Apr. 30, 2015

Snoqualmie Region > Snoqualmie Pass

Went up Red Mountain via the old Commonwealth Basin trail (second unmarked left on the northbound PCT at Snoqualmie pass, about 50 yards in). The PCT trail head is now open, snow free, and completely empty today, both in the morning, and when I left. There's something you don't see very often. The basin is still mostly snow covered, and mostly easy walking with the occasional deep step. Gaiters are a good idea. Past the Red Pond basin there is no snow until near the top of Red Mtn. The 'summer' route veers left from the spine and follows a large gully to the summit, and is currently full of hard frozen snow, and very steep. I scramble the SW ridge instead, which was a little cliffy, but nothing too hard, and mostly snow free. You go directly the summit from this route, which is good because the 'summer' route ends at a big cornice (and long drop) that i wouldn't recommend standing on. As always, the route up is hard to find, steep, and loose rocky. It's been many moons since I last submitted a trip report. I've been meaning to let some of my old acquaintances here know that our hiking buddy Tucker (one of my fox terriers) passed away this spring. He summited a lot of little mountains in his days, but probably Red Mtn more than any other. This was always a favorite 'goto' hike, and the marmots almost always got his goat and got us in trouble. He was a bad dog. I'm going to miss him a lot. I also neglected to note the anniversary of the passing of Tomas http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/trip-reports/tripreport_search?creator=jwright in July of 2012, who died in a fall on Green Mountain. I never met him in person, but I knew him well. The older I get, my mantra has become 'safety first' before I attempt anything risky. Both of these guys, Tucker and Tomas, would have wanted all of us to celebrate their lives the way they did, have fun and keep hiking! .