Mailbox Peak - Old Trail, Mailbox Peak — Sunday, Jan. 29, 2017

Snoqualmie Region > North Bend Area

TIMELINE 5am--meet at the parking lot 5:30am--depart from the old trail TH 7:20am--meet up with the new trail 8:00am--Mailbox Peak Summit 8:15am--begin descent 10:30am--reached the parking lot TRAIL The first mile of the trail is completely snow free. You start hitting patches of ice and snow on the trail from here, and at mile 1.5 we strapped on our microspikes. The trail is pretty easy to follow, even in the dark. The diamond markers start pretty early on the trail, and were very helpful. When in doubt, look for those, as well as the snow/ice with mud tracks on it. Once you get to the exposed area, the trail is mostly a sheet of ice from people glissading down. It seemed as though it went straight up as well--way steeper than I remember from the summer ascent. We almost didn't continue up because we had a dog, but the dog plowed ahead and we followed. We didn't make it to the summit by sunrise, but it was still an amazing cloud show during the final climb, and 360 views from the top. The contents of the mailbox were pretty slim--whoever decided hot dogs were a great thing to carry to the top, well...they'll probably spoil up there. There was a Rainier beer left, too. On the descent, an ice axe really would have been helpful. If you slip, since the slope is mostly ice, you'll be unable to stop. Overall a great day to be outside! I'll be back to summit by sunrise.

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