The climb up Vesper Peak today demonstrated several of the potential challenges for late winter/early spring hiking. Swollen rivers, icy conditions, snow falling, low visibility and losing the trail. The mud starting out on the Sunrise trail reminded us of spring. The Stillaguamish was running faster and deeper than it was in January, the last time we came up. The only two people we saw today were up river trying to find an easier crossing, but they didn't. We stuck to the trail, and dropped several large rocks in to make the crossing a little less wet. Thanks to the people behind us who dropped in several more rocks, making the crossing much easier for us coming back. The valley is almost entirely snow-free and it's easy to follow the trail. If you go up in the next few weeks, don't make the mistake that we did, which was coming out of the last patch of trees and heading straight to the right up what we thought was the gully up to Headlee Pass. With the snow still present on the west side of the valley, that gully looked a lot like the normal trail, and we climbed all the way to the top before realizing that we had cut over too soon. If there is a way to take that route and then drop back down to trail, we couldn't figure it out, and so we went all the way down, and then back up the correct gully to Headlee Pass. The extra hour and a half, and extra effort due to getting off trail made a break at Headlee Pass a necessity as it started to snow heavily. There were no footprints or tracks up to the pass, and none heading towards the lake, although it was pretty easy to pick out the trail. The way it was snowing today, our tracks are most likely gone, as they were already vanishing as we made our decent. We crossed the Vesper Creek outlet at what turned out to be the correct spot (pretty soon after dropping down from the trail to the lake/creek outlet) and headed straight up the east ridge towards the summit. No tracks at all so just straight up we went into fresh snow, which was falling very heavily at this point. There is no trail, but the ridge is pretty easy to follow. Unfortunately as we approached 6,000 feet there was zero visibility. We kept on towards the summit until it leveled out. Altimeter said 6,400 feet (probably off a bit from the weather, since Vesper is 6,210), and GPS location put us at, or very near the summit. We couldn't see more than 10 feet, so it was difficult to get bearings, and decided to pass on our normal "summit lunch" as we could already tell our tracks up were getting filled. We enjoyed some good glissading down Vesper and made good time back to Headlee Pass. Note that in current conditions, the decent from Headlee is pretty treacherous. The snow was sticking to our spikes making them essentially worthless, and there is a sheet of ice and a lot of icy rock under the fresh snow. We were able to slide down a bit, but had a couple of falls that required self-arrests as well. Our ice-axes got plenty of use today. The maintained trail was a welcome sight after the ice and wet boulders. We are a bit jealous of the recent Vesper ascents that looked like they had some great weather, but feel good about being able to make it after getting off trail, and in rough conditions. Be prepared for a lot of ice and breaking a trail yourself if you head up in the next several weeks. We left the trailhead at 815 and got back at 530. Our mis-adventure up the wrong route to Headlee cost us about an hour and a half so we would have gotten back around 4 if we stayed on trail.

A classic early March climb that ended with calling in a helicopter... see my full trip report here http://peakery.com/vesper-peak-cascades/

The trail is in great shape - the crossing of the Stillaguamish was as low as I've ever seen it (which bodes poorly for the rivers in late summer). Snow begins below Headlee Pass, and the trail is snow-covered all the way to the pass. Footing is a mess - crampons and ice axe are very helpful. Otherwise, pick your way carefully. Trail on the open slopes to the outlet of the lake is sun-baked and snow-free. Snow begins just below the lake and is continuous from there to the top of Vesper and most of the way up Sperry.

I didn't make it to Vesper Peak today, I only made it to Headlee pass. When I leave the house before the crack of dawn to drive to a mountain that I have not climbed before I am more than a bit apprehensive. Delving into the unknown at an hour of the day when most people still lie in their beds makes me feel not only excited about the upcoming adventure, but also somehow isolated from the rest of the world. This time was no exception - I drove in the dark in the frigid weather of late November along the beautiful Mountain Loop Highway and reached forest road 4065 as the sun came up. The snow on this short, 2.3-mile side road has not been plowed, but luckily there had already been some traffic the day before and tracks were established, nothing the Audi couldn't handle. I had barely parked at the end of the road when a red Jetta appeared, carrying a party of four from the Seattle Mountaineers, with the same destination as me - Vesper peak. We were the only people on that route for the day. Around 8am I started following the larger group through the forest, over the creek crossings until we reached the south fork of the Stillaguamish river. This crossing was more difficult; the flow wasn't particularly strong, but the rocks were wet. Eventually everyone managed to get across with the help of crampons. I kept following the group until we reached the Wirtz basin and started trudging on snowshoes towards Headlee pass on virgin, fresh snow under the spires of Sperry peak glistening in the morning light. This stretch of trail to the pass is on a north-facing talus tucked between Sperry and Morning Star peaks, and it was in the shade the whole time which made this beautiful winter day colder and darker. I eventually felt guilty about taking advantage of the group's tracks and I joined them to break trail uphill in the foot-deep snow in rotation up the gully that leads to the pass. Eventually, Alex, the girl who seemed to be leading the group, blasted full steam ahead and broke trail all the way to Headlee pass; by that time it didn't really matter, because the pass is so steep that even following tracks in the snow was just as difficult. Eventually I joined her at the top of the pass and the other three followed soon thereafter. Progress had been slower than we had hoped; it was past noon and it become clear to everyone that another couple of hours - if not even longer, given the soft, unconsolidated snow - to make the summit of Vesper, was just not going to be a good idea, with sunset at 4pm. We merely walked a few hundred feet on the other side of the pass to get a good view of Vesper - and what a view it was! - and then turned around. In truth, we never stood a chance to reach that summit today. I'll be back! Time to the pass and back: 8:10AM - 3:35PM Mountain Loop highway - plowed till Barlow Pass NF-4065 - not groomed but passable Temperature - mostly in the teens Trail - from a few inches to 1 foot of snow Avalanche danger - low; there was about 1 foot of fresh snow and landscape features (talus, small trees) were still visible throughout

Great hike. Great weather. Beautiful views. I recommend to try and get this hike in before its too late.