Mount Teneriffe, Teneriffe Falls — Saturday, Jan. 21, 2017

Snoqualmie Region > North Bend Area

First off, the trail is accessible by all vehicles since the snow level only begins right around the Kamikaze Falls on the Kamikaze Trail. There are some patches of ice between the trailhead and the falls but if you walk on the exterior part of the trail you should be fine, unless you want to mount/dismount your spikes often. After the Kamikaze Falls, the snow is fairly packed so as the ascent can be done easily with spikes. After the first opening about 500-feet below the Teneriffe Summit, the snow becomes deep and the potholes make it a bit more difficult to ascend. From the K-Falls upward, I recommend storing your poles away as the steep ascent becomes a bit more of a scramble. At the summit the snow is not packed and it is a bit of a workout. When we arrived at the top there was hardly any wind and great weather. I did not see any stress fissures in the snow layers at the very top but I also did not spend an excessive amount looking for them, thus I found it fairly safe. As usual, the drop off on the north face of the summit is super steep and extreme caution is advised when prancing around taking photographs and acting distracted. Returning to the trailhead we took the logging road route (6.5 miles). The trail through the forest is not well marked and one must have fair navigational skills to find the actual logging road, though I believe eight of us made some pretty fair amount of footprints to follow until the next snowfall covers them. Once on the logging road, potholing became a nightmare. Snowshoes are highly advised, though the myriad potholes in the trail make it just as futile with snowshoes on. Still, out of the 6.5 miles on this logging road, I'd say the lower 1.5 miles are snow free (keep in mind this may change with weather). On the snow covered part of the trail, it is a fun endeavor trying to cross the streams that cut a 4-foot drop in the snow layers while sporting snowshoes. We were fairly lucky that nobody fell in the streams but I'd say the odds are not in the hikers' favor. Otherwise, it was a great hike.