Trip Report
Alpine Scramble - Snoqualmie Mountain
Originally scheduled as a scramble up Hibox, plans had to change when the road to Hibox proved to still be snowed in. After digging out a car, we headed to Alpental and climbed East Snoqualmie and Guye Peak instead.
Andy Cahn
- Thu, May 9, 2019
- Alpine Scramble - Snoqualmie Mountain
- Guye Peak, Snoqualmie Mountain & Cave Ridge (Alpental)
- Scrambling
- Successful
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- Snow and ice on road
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Road to Rachel Lake is still snowed in. Road to Alpental is clear.
We originally planned to scramble up Hibox, but the road to Rachel Lake was filled with more snow than we anticipated. Our lead car got stuck in the snow (despite being a Subaru) and our first adventure involved digging it out. Once again, Trail Saviors Juliette and Twy saved the day, this time by providing the tow rope. (See my trip report on last week's Low Mountain trip to learn how Juliette and Twy earned the moniker of Trail Saviors.)
Abandoning Hibox, we decided to head for Alpental and climb East Snoqualmie. Did you know that there is no west-bound exit at exit 52 (West Summit)? We didn't either. All three cars ended up down at exit 47 and making a U-turn.
After these two false starts, the rest of the day was mishap free. We climbed up to the waterfall, then up to the valley between Snoqualmie and Cave Ridge, went up the valley to East Snoqualmie's south ridge, and climbed to the summit. We saw tracks of marmot and bear.
From the summit we could see countless peaks, including Adams, Rainier, the Olympics, Baker, Shuksan, Glacier, and Stewart. After lounging on the summit for an hour, indulging ourselves in sun and brownies, we decided to tag Guye on the descent.
We topped off the day with a fabulous meal at Naan N Curry in Issaquah.
Photos courtesy of Alex Negrila.