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Grindstone Mountain

Trip

Alpine Scramble - Grindstone Mountain

A three day scramble trip traversing some rarely visited portions of the Alpine Lakes from Stevens Pass to Icicle Creek.

Contacts

Peter Clitherow
Peter Clitherow
Primary Leader
Qualified Youth Leader
  • Technical 3, Strenuous 5
  • Challenging
  • Mileage: 30.0 mi
  • Elevation Gain: 9,000 ft

This will be a challenging trip involving much elevation gain and off trail travel.  The rewards are to visit lesser scrambled peaks such as Bulls Tooth, Snowgrass Mtn and Grindstone Mtn.  We will emerge at the Chatter Creek TH, and shuttle back to the start.  Other possible scrambles en route might be Ladies Peak, Cape Horn and Frosty Peak depending on party energy and time.  We will expect participants to be experienced on multi-day scrambles.

Here’s a possible itinerary:
Day 1. Meet at Stevens Pass around 0800 say.  Car shuttle completed and people back to stevens around 1000.  It’s around 11m on trail to chain lakes, and you can climb Bulls Tooth from there;  either camp at the lakes if we’re tired, or drop over the pass to Doelle lakes.
Day 2.  The trail east of Doelle is tough to follow, but I have a track from the last time I did it.  Head over to Frosty pass and climb Snowgrass Mtn (top 200 peak).  This will be quite time consuming as it’s mostly off trail from Frosty pass.  Either drop back down to the trail, or continue cross country to Ladies pass.  Camp at Lake Edna.
Day 3. An easier day: approximately 8m up Grindstone Mtn, and down chatter creek to the TH.  Should be completed by early afternoon.  
Possible side trips depending on time/party interest.  Frosty Peak, Cape Horn, Ladies Peak.  We could also run it in reverse, starting from chatter creek, and doing the shuttle on the 3rd day.

Stevens Pass PCT Southbound TH, 0800

Route/Place

Grindstone Mountain


  • USGS Jack Mtn
    USGS Chiwaukum Mountains
    Green Trails Alpine Lakes East (Stuart Range) No. 208SX
  • See full route/place details.
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Required Equipment

Required Equipment

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