Trip Report
Alpine Scramble - Guye Peak/North Route
A quick after work scramble to the top of Guye Peak. Despite a little bit of smoke, we saw some gorgeous fall colors and made it back just after sunset.
Emma Meersman
- Wed, Sep 24, 2025
- Alpine Scramble - Guye Peak/North Route
- Guye Peak, Snoqualmie Mountain & Cave Ridge (Alpental)
- Scrambling
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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Road suitable for all vehicles, plenty of space in the parking lot, no bugs. Air quality was poor and we could smell smoke in the parking lot. It seemed to be more concentrated on the Alpental side of the valley so we didn't breathe in too much on the ascent. The trail was mostly dry and fall colors are starting to come out in full force.
The goal of this trip was to climb Guye Peak North as an after-work scramble and take full advantage of the limited daylight. The sunset time was 7pm so we wanted to be back on the Guye/Snoqualmie trail by then. Our group of five assembled in the Alpental parking lot at 4:30pm. We could smell a lot of smoke from wildfires to the east. The air quality forecast had decreased that morning so one participant opted to skip.
After a quick briefing, we started moving at 4:45pm. We made very quick work of the Snoqualmie/Guye trail, reaching the turnoff to Guye in just over half an hour. It turned out that all participants had done this part of the approach within the last month, so all of us were familiar with the route. There's a new sign at the Guye Peak trail junction so it's easy to find the turnoff. After a quick break, we headed towards Guye.
The trail diverges at Red Pond. We had GPX tracks for both route options and ended up going counterclockwise (climber's right) around the pond on the approach. This route ended up having slightly more rock instead of the steep dirt trail on the other option. One part of the route had some loose rocks (with a well-defined trail snaking between them). We put on helmets out of an abundance of caution and didn't remove them until after the summit.
The summit block was uneventful, everyone moved confidently on the rock and all five of us had room to stand up there together. We descended to a wider ledge to take a longer food break, then headed back down. We summited around 6pm and started moving again around 6:20pm. We descended back to Red Pond via the other route option, since it required less movement on rock in the waning light. We reached the Guye Peak turnoff just before 7pm, achieving our goal of being on trail by sunset.
From there, it was a smooth descent to the parking lot. We stopped once to put on headlamps and made it back to the cars by 7:30pm. Overall, this was a fun little after work scramble with a strong team. Despite the smoke, we got to see a lovely sunset and some fall colors!