Trip Report
Alpine Scramble - Trappers Peak
Beautiful weather resulted in great trail and scrambling conditions. The views at the top were one of the best in the north cascades for the amount of effort required to get there.
Bhargav Gnv
- Sat, Jul 25, 2020
- Thornton Lakes & Trappers Peak
- Scrambling
- Successful
-
- Road recommended for high clearance only
-
The road to the trailhead is filled with some sections of potholes that sedans will most likely bottom out, so highly recommend going to this one in a high clearance vehicle. Everyone with sedan parked 2 miles from the trailhead and made the hike to the trailhead.
Please note this is a trip report intended to provide an idea of the conditions for future scrambles on this route.
The hike starts off on an old logging road that is almost flat. There is a bathroom at the trailhead that was open and very clean! Once you take the turn towards the trail from the logging road, it earnestly climbs through the forest cover. This was dry trail with a couple of streams for water sources. The bugs were not too bad, but definitely needed bug spray.
Once you reach the junction with thornton lakes trail, take right to head up to trappers peak (left leads to thronton lakes). There is a clear sign that will help you with this. After 0.25 miles this way, I would recommend putting on your helmets. Although you will be following the trail, there are a couple of sections that require you to use your hands and veggie belay to pull yourself up. This is particularly true of a 5 ft chute of mud that has no steps in it.
After this, it follows a trail again till you reach the point where you start looking at a ridge to the summit block. The ridge is fairly straightforward with a single section with a couple of moves where a fall could have consequences (just take it slow, it is not really that hard!). After this, it is an easy third class scrambling to the summit for the last 100 ft. We took the climbers right and followed the path between the rock and snow. There are good handholds and footholds all the way to the top.
The summit is very spacious and has some of the best views in the state. I counted more than a dozen glaciers. The view of the sacred and rarified northern pickets was especially sweet. It was my first time looking at the Pickets in person, and I will remember it for a while.
We did not continue on towards Mountain X but if you plan to do so, have 1-1.5 hrs for the round trip added into your planning.
Took ice axe and microspikes and helmet, but only had to use the helmet. Did not bring out the ice axe or the microspikes. Definitely recommend this scramble for one of the highest effort to reward ratios in North Cascades! Took us 8 hours car to car with 1.5 hours at the summit for lunch and staring at the peaks around us. Thanks to Komal for some of the pictures.