Sulphur Mountain — Friday, Apr. 23, 1999

North Cascades > Mountain Loop Highway

It's about two hours to the Suiattle River trailhead if you're flying. A few feet down S.R. trail Sulphur Mt. trail appears on the left. This trail does not fool around. We started switchbacking steeply. The trail moderated before settling down to a 16% average grade. The snow has melted all the way up to 3200' on the SW facing slope. The snow became solid at 3600'. No longer on trail, we generally climbed up and to the right. We occasionally caught glimpes of Lime Ridge across the valley. Up and right, up and right, up and right. Snow conditions were mostly good, with some wallowing to be expected this time of year. As we approached the top the trees started to thin. Somehow we were at the exact spot the USGS topo and the Greentrails maps show the trail ending. We had stellar views of Green, Huckleberry, Box, and Lime mountains, with Glacier Peak taking the cake. It would have been nice to traverse just to the next knob for a better view up valley, but the exposure on a steep snow slope on a 70 degree day deterred us from trying. No real views until the top. I think we'll try to get the real Sulphur Mt peak (another mile away and 700' higher) after the fifteen feet of snow is gone. We lost our tracks in the snow about half way down. Being tired kept us from a thorough backtrack, and probably added about an hour of off-trail brush thrashing on the way down. We emerged from the bush 200 yards from the trail. Round trip: 8 miles, 4200' elevation gain, 8 hours.