Headlee Pass is snow free. The snow begins after the creek outlet of Lake Elan/Vesper Lake. The snow was soft and easily navigated. Ice axes were used, but the snow was so soft they weren't necessary.

With the weather expected to be in the mid 70s the pup and I decided to head to Vesper Peak. The Sunrise Mine Road had no major potholes and was a nice 2 mile drive displaying views of the surrounding peaks. Once we were on the trail (around 6 am) it was fairly basic besides one substantial creek crossing and your typical rock/root trail scheme. Once we entered lower Wertz Basin we lost the trail temporarily but continued up large and small rocks to the southeast side of Sperry Peak. Headlee Pass proved to be a small challenge, but the early morning snow (no slush) was definitely a huge help. After the pass we worked through some awesome scree fields that had patches of snow, nothing too difficult here but proceed with caution. We skipped pass Lake Elan and headed up to Vesper Peak, at this point there was nothing but snow - each step I sunk in about 24 inches while Shilo was in a winter wonderland circling me and making it look easy. The push to the summit isn't really that difficult - but some trekking poles would have been awfully helpful in keeping my balance going up. After about 30 minutes on the summit block we headed back down and were able to do some minor glissading down to the scree fields. I was worried about how Headlee Pass would be on the descent since the snow was getting a slushy consistency on its top layer that made stability even more of an issue. A lot of people were heading up the pass so we waited our turn and slowly worked our way down being cautious with every step. It was a relief to get off Headlee and back to the trail. An exceptional day hike with the dog that provided not only a challenge, but a nice dose of early morning solitude that I very much enjoyed. I did this hike without any trekking poles, microspikes or an ice axe...all would have been useful and I recommend anyone doing this hike to start early and be prepared.

**If anyone heads up to Vesper soon and happens to find half a pair of black microspikes somewhere in between Headlee Pass and the creek crossing up to Vesper, it would love to be reunited with its lonely friend back in Seattle :) - Hit the trail a little after 11:15 and made it back to the car just before 7:00 - Used ice axe, poles, microspikes* (although the snow was such crap, I don’t think any sort of foot traction really helped today) Despite deep, slushy snow and a lot of postholing, the trail was still in better condition than when I was here back in February – the fresh layer of snow from Saturday night at least left something to sink into going up/down Headlee Pass, and the weather was great! The views from the summit were amazing and well worth the slog.

Trailhead: about 2100’ (?) Summit 6214’ 4100’ gain 9 miles round trip Up 5:16 Down 3:30 Left trailhead at 8:40; back at 6:15 Used ax and poles; no crampons or microspikes due to soft snow The weather was gorgeous; the snow was deep, fresh and made for postholing. I may have set a personal best for slow going. The trail, as usual, was rough, steep and rocky. The beginning through the forest was muddy from snowmelt and it takes careful log walking and rock hopping to cross the Stillaguamish. Continuous snow began at 2900’ as the trail enters the valley between Morning Star and Sperry, leading toward Headlee Pass. At 3900’ I turned right and headed up into the first steep snow-filled couloir that breaches the cliffs beyond Sperry. Coming down the route were a large group of climbers who had spent the night at Vesper Lake. At the top, I puzzled over the lack of the Headlee Pass sign I’d seen in previous years. Later in the day I learned I’d gone up to Not Headlee Pass and that the authentic couloir to Headlee is a hundred yards or so farther up the valley. But both get you to the traverse trail to Vesper; Headlee is perhaps the safer of the two. From the pass at 4600’ it’s essentially a long steep trek up another 1500’ to the summit, made especially tiring yesterday by the deep soft snow. The summit is worth all the effort, with spectacular 360-degree views, including Three Fingers, Whitehorse, Baker, White Chuck, Pugh, Glacier, Sloan, Morning Star, Del Campo, Sperry, Stuart, Rainier and on and on. ---------------------------- It was a day for climbing clubs to get in some alpine conditioning. I met people from Boealps, Bushwhacker and a Meetup club. Two parties from Boealps had spent the night at Vesper Lake and climbed Vesper and Sperry. A group of about eight from a Meetup hiking and scrambling club romped up Vesper, looking forward to a Mother’s Day climb of Mount St. Helens when, they tell me, they will all wear dresses in honor of Mom. A private party, of three men, climbed Sperry and then followed the connecting ridge to the top of Vesper. As I was coming down about 3:30 I passed a young couple laboring upward, an hour from the summit, in shorts and lightweight trail shoes, no gaiters, no ice ax, no poles, no gloves -- definitely not members of a climbing club.

After my aborted attempt to reach Vesper Peak in November I often obsessed about getting back there before winter ended. Today I decided to take a chance on the shifting weather, took the day off, and finally made it to the summit! Just as I was thinking I was surely going to be alone on the mountain, hiking on a Wednesday, at the trailhead I met Carter - a member of the Everett mountaineers - who was heading to the same destination and was just as surprised as me to see another soul. Later I caught up with him and we broke trail together. The access road was free of snow and in pretty good shape, save for a few potholes. The trail up to the Wirtz basin is snow free too, and the creek crossings were easy. Even the big Stillaguamish river was quite tame today, I saw multiple places where it could be crossed on rocks. The snow begins in earnest once you enter the Wirtz basin up towards Headlee Pass, but a trail had been dug out in previous days so it wasn't too hard to follow, kicking small steps in the hard morning snow. The climb to Headlee pass was a serious workout in the snow, but kicking steps up the steep slope wasn't too hard; I was following Carter's steps and he was following older tracks, no crampons needed. I made it to the pass in 2 hours, compared to 4 hours in November when we were snowshoeing all the way. There is still a lot of snow behind Headlee pass all the way to Vesper summit, soft, wet, heavy snow, sticking to your boots, slippery and awkward to walk on. We followed a faint trail through up the slope in the general direction of the summit, which was invisible most of the time. There were occasional breaks in the clouds, but the weather didn't cooperate; we were surrounded by a thin layer of clouds which seemed like it was going to dissipate and vanish any minute but never did. The older tracks disappeared around 5500 feet, it almost looked like whoever made it that far had decided to turn back foregoing the summit. From then on we took turns post-holing up the snow ramp all the way to our knees for the rest of the way. We made the summit at noon - four hours from trailhead, not bad! I couldn't find the summit registry, you'd have needed a shovel for that, to dig at the base of the summit pile of rocks. We spent about 20 minutes there, having lunch, hoping for some good views which never materialized, before we started plunge-stepping our way down the mountain. Carter left earlier and I didn't catch up with him again. The afternoon snow was softer, slushy, unpleasant. I made it back to the car in about 2 hours 15 minutes. What a day!