Note that winter scrambles are open only to GRADUATES of the Scramble or Basic Climbing class. Students of either one must wait until next year to participate

Defiance Peak is on the north side of I-90 above Exit-42. In summer, you can drive a forest service road back from Exit 45, but in the winter that road is snow covered, so we park at exit 42 and hike up the hill.

MEETING PLACE:
Meet inside the Issaquah Transit Center parking garage on the first floor in th... More

Note that winter scrambles are open only to GRADUATES of the Scramble or Basic Climbing class. Students of either one must wait until next year to participate

Defiance Peak is on the north side of I-90 above Exit-42. In summer, you can drive a forest service road back from Exit 45, but in the winter that road is snow covered, so we park at exit 42 and hike up the hill.

MEETING PLACE:
Meet inside the Issaquah Transit Center parking garage on the first floor in the Northeast corner at 7:00 AM. Call me on my cell phone at 425-442-6411 if you are running late and want us to wait for you.

GEAR:
- Ice Axe is always required.
- Snowshoes with aggressive points on the bottom such as MSR.
- Crampons are NOT required this time.
- Avalanche beacon, shovel, probe and the skills to use them are highly recommended but not required for participation.
- No parking pass is required

ROUTE:
From the north side of freeway at exit 42, we hike up the west side of Mason Creek. Upon reaching the summer road we follow it west until just before the parking lot, at which point we head up the hill and short-cut to the trail headed east. We follow that until 100 yards after it crosses Mason Creek. We then follow the route of the "OLD Mason Lake" trail up to Mason Lake. Note that if you have hiked the "normal" trail to Mason Lake in the last 5 years, that is different from what we will do. We are going up along side the creek through the forest. The map shown on the link below shows the "old trail", which is what we are taking. The "new route goes further east.
From Mason Lake, we head north west up to the summit of Defiance.

TOPO:
Here is a link to a printable map of the area: http://www.mappingsupport.com/p/gmap4.php?ll=47.426694,-121.569686&t=t4&z=15&hillshade=18&coord=latlng&directions=off&mylocation=off&label=off&layers=off&screen=auto&streetview=on

I would encourage you to review and print this map. If you can't get the 'Mapping Support' print feature to work, Press Ctrl-PrntScr to copy the screen Image to the clipboard, paste it into the Microsoft Paint program, crop it to size, and print it out. Please don't show up without map compass and the skills to use them.

NOTE: In the event of high avy danger we will snowshoe to Mt Catherine from the Lake Annette trail head.

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