Trip Report
Alpine Scramble - Tinkham Peak
Traveling up to the ridge between Silver and Tinkham, followed by a traverse over both of Tinkham’s peaks and a descent to Mirror Lake, makes this do-able as a scramble in wet weather.
Danielle Graham
- Sun, Sep 23, 2018
- Alpine Scramble - Tinkham Peak
- Silver, Tinkham & Abiel Peaks
- Scrambling
- Successful
- Road recommended for high clearance only
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The forest service road up to Windy Pass continues to be very rough at the washout near the last switchback. Definitely not recommended for sedans and even a little slow going in that section for a manual transmission Outback.
The forecast got worse as the weekend arrived, but this particular scramble route was chosen to be do-able in case of inclement weather. We started at the PCT at Windy Pass before nine and had smooth sailing on the trail, on the boot path up to the ridge between Tinkham and Silver. Some members wore rain pants for the steep boot path up from the ridge to the rock scramble portion to help keep dry while pulling on the rain-shedding, but plentiful and strong veg belays. By the time we reached the rock, it had stopped raining.
We moved smoothly through the rock section, at times opting for veggie holds over wet rock.
We stopped at the first summit to sign the register, and I apologize for forgetting to bring a new register, as I knew a few weeks back the current one is full. We traversed over to the second summit, and the weather had improved enough to sit a while and eat.
Conditions started to improve as we began our descent which is a gradual boot path down to Mirror Lake, connecting again to the PCT.
We saw many mushrooms and the start of fall colors. There weren’t any berries along the trail, but lots at the parking area. We also saw goat prints as we ascended to Tinkham, and an eagle-eyed scrambler spotted a goat high up across Mirror Lake on our return trip. Hiking or scrambling in this area should be very nice over the next few weeks, especially if you are looking for some bright colors or mushrooms. We were back to the cars before 2:00. All the trip participants were scramble students this year. I was very impressed with their preparation for inclement weather, safe scrambling on wet rock, efficiency on the trail, and good attitudes. 
