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Trip Report    

Alpine Scramble - The Fin/Southeast Ridge

A successful trip to one peaks of Kangaroo ridge.

  • Road suitable for all vehicles

 Warm temperatures from earlier in the week and warm temperatures today. Made us not need the crampons for the approach to the pass that is sometimes needed for this time of year. Temperature were in the  high 70s are greater.

Met at Ash Way P&R in Lynwood  at 4 A.M. stopping in  Newhalem for a break. We then continued to hairpin turn  just past Washington Pass on Highway 20.  Starting hiking around  8:15 after a few starts we were finally underway. As you make your way to the Kangaroo Pass 6671' you want to stay  far right (South)  of Early Winters Creek. The creek fans out a lot not shown on the map. As you near the pass you will see the falls from the outlet of the pond bellow the pass. Cross above the falls and continue to  the pass.  We reached the pass at 9:30  A.M.and took a quick break and  we could see most of the route of the traverse up the valley.

From the low point in the saddle we continued down about 500' and did the traverse. On snow and bare ground. The warm conditions made the usually easy snow a pain because of postholing we tried to stay on bare ground when we could. We reached the boulder field just bellow Tomahawk. We were wondering if that was our summit, but we continued to the SE saddle between "The Fin" and the North ridge of Gilbert Mountain.

You don't need to go the the pass because there is a small spire just east of "The Fin."  We went up between the small spire and "The Fin." The base of the spire on the ridge is a good place to leave packs  and or ice axes and poles as you will have to squeeze between a tree and rock to continue to the summit.  We were now just a couple minutes from the summit.

From the tree we did a counter clockwise traverse (class 2-3) to the summit. Squeezed through the tree and find the ramp on your right (NE side). The short 20' ramp leads to summit. At the summit is a flat 15' friction slab that you will need to walk up to touch the high point.  There is also a large crack that runs down the slab as well that you can walk in. We finally reached the summit at 12:50.  Not the best snow conditions and the warmer temperature had slowed our pace a lot. Not to mention the views along the way.

There was enough room for our party of  6  on the summit. There we continued to enjoy the great views from the summit  (30 minutes summit stay) before heading down. We followed more or less our accent route, but we did find part of the climbers trail that goes to Kangaroo Temple right bellow the pass. Reached the pass at about 16:00 P.M. and down at the cars after a few short glissades down into the basin. Stopped by the falls to get a little water before reaching the cars  around 17:10 P.M.

Stopped at Newhalem on the way home, but we didn't make it in time to Cascadian Farms for ice cream in time (summer hours 9-7 P.M.).

We had a great group and I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did. 

Timeline: 4 hrs. 35 min up. 3.5 down.

Gear brought but didn't need: Crampons.