Trip Report
Winter Scramble - 5,050 Pass, Valhalla (Point 5345)
A great springlike day in the mountains with no precipitation! Blue sky timing was impeccable with Mount Jupiter/Hood Canal views opening up just as we reached the summit.
Dave Morgan
- Sat, May 14, 2022
- Alpine Scramble - 5,050 Pass from Dosewallips Road
- 5,050 Pass from Dosewallips Road
- Scrambling
- Successful
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- Road rough but passable
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Winter snowmelt is proceeding nicely with snowshoes donned at ~4100’ for the final ~1300’ of gain. On descent our snowshoes seemed inordinately prone to slippage (due to intermittent underlying crusts overlaid by very wet unconsolidated snow) so we experimented with some using snowshoes, the others on foot. There was no clear consensus (it seemed equally awkward for both modes of travel ;). A number of downed logs/debris on the trail, but all easily negotiated. The Dosewallips River Road continues to be negotiable to the ‘new’ road end at 47.74188°N 123.04916°W (albeit with slow going potholes the last few miles).
A surprisingly great day in the mountains (especially so given the recent ongoing train of storm systems passing through our area). We negotiated an interesting debris field at ~2100’ where a substantial tree had swept the slope on its rapid descent:
As our day came to an end we were treated with a glimpse of a black bear just west of the cars (the bear kindly accommodated our passing by calmly ambling off into the undergrowth). A great day with a total trip time of ~8 hours (4.5 hours for the ascent, 0.5 hour lunch break near the summit, and 3 hours for the descent) for this strenuous ~8 mile/~5000’ gain outing. Photos from this and other trips to this venue can be seen here.