Alpine Scramble - Cashmere Mountain

5am at Eightmile Trailhead (NW Forest Pass required).

Recommend car camping near the trailhead. The leader will be attending Foothills Climbapalooza which will have a group campsite nearby.

This will be a long, single-day trip of 16-18 miles (mostly on trail, with rock scrambling at the summit pyramid) and around 5,500 ft of gain. We'll take the standard summer route up the West Ridge via Windy Pass. The amount of exposure and scree/talus we experience will depend on our route finding up the ridge and summit pyramid. Due to this, participants must be in excellent condition (have multiple recent 10+ hour scramble/climbing days) and be comfortable with scrambling on loose rock and as well as with exposure. Note some of the trail has limited sun cover. When requesting leader's permission, let me know about your experience with this type of terrain and recent long trips in the alpine.

Given the long distance, mostly on trail, we'll aim for an conversational pace of 2.0-2.5 mph with breaks approximately hourly. Everyone is expected to contribute to navigation and group decision making.

If the weather or smoke forecast is unacceptably poor, this trip will be canceled.