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Alpine Scramble - Arrowhead Mountain

9 Mountaineers enjoyed a pleasant snow scramble of Arrowhead Mountain on 5/6/17.

Placeholder Contact Profile Fritz Klein
May 07, 2017
  • Road suitable for all vehicles

  • Snow conditions were quite variable.  There were many places where we sank in a foot or two, but those sections were all so short that it wouldn't have helped at all to have snowshoes.  There was an icy crust in places, and most people used microspikes on the descent, although I chose not to use them and had no problems.   There are cornices on the upper ridge, but it was easy to stay away from them.  I saw no indications that the snow we were on was at all likely to slide; in any case, most of the route was in the trees.

We approached Arrowhead from the NW, not via the longer east ridge route.  We started at the logging road that begins near MP 71 on Highway 2 west of Henry Creek.  This road got us across both Henry Creek and the unnamed creek to the east.  At the end of the road, we went up the snowy clearcut for several hundred vertical feet, then turned left to gain a ridge leading up and south.  This ridge becomes a slope leading to the main north ridge which we followed to the summit.  The weather was generally pretty good -- some sun, some clouds, a few snow showers.  Unfortunately, clouds limited the views  in all directions.  During the course of the day, we did a bit of self-arrest practice, traversing and switchbacking on snow, and managed to find a few short slopes for glissading.