Sauk Mountain, Sauk Mountain Snowshoe — Thursday, May. 8, 2008

North Cascades > North Cascades Highway - Hwy 20

Trying to avoid the avy slopes on the Sauk Mtn.Trail, Ive been looking at a route that picks up the ridge to the s.e. of the open slopes. I found a trip report from Vertigo from 4/19/2000 that mentions an 'old Sauk Trail' so thought I'd take a look. We found the 'overgrown logging track' west of Conrad Rd. but it was clearly marked with No Trespassing signs. We walked another 100 yd. west and started up. Following a bearing of 320*, we crossed a maze of old roads but never picked up the trail. At about 2800', we hit some cliff bands and headed due north to get around them. At 3000' we hit the ridge and went back to our bearing of 320. We also hit solid snow at this point. Followed the ridge until it broke out of the trees and we could see the summit. We put snowshoes on at about 4000' as the sun had softened the snow enough to break though. Reached the summit at about 1:30, 5.5 hrs. from the car. Not much of a view as it was mostly cloudy but still had a bit of sun to have lunch. Retraced our route down but somehow picked up the old trail at 1100', 800' above the start. We followed it down and hit Hwy. 20 about 1/4 mile west of our start. Car to car in about 8.5 hrs./ 5200' gain.