Basic Rock Climb - Lundin Peak/West Ridge

Trip Report

In researching the climb, it looked like we could make this a loop. By going up and over Lundin, we could connect to a trail system that leads to Red Mountain and then back down to the PCT trailhead. In a prep e-mail with the group, we decided that we would do as a loop but only if time allowed otherwise we would reverse course. We were also planning to do this climb with a moderate pace. I was hopeful that it could be done! We dropped one car off at the PCT TH on the way to the Snow Creek TH in case it all worked out

We got started early morning Wed and made good time up to the saddle between Guye and Snoqualmie. We missed a turnoff, ending up on the trail up to Snoqualmie, and did a little bush scrambling to get back on track to the dry creek bed next to Cave Ridge.

Soon we were approaching the end of the dry creek and turned up toward the massive chunks of rock on the horizon. The day was super clear and temp was good in the valley

The views started to open up as we got higher. Looking back over Cave Ridge with Rainier in the distance

We skirted just under the first rock chunk we saw earlier and side hilled in the direction of Lundin, passing a plane wreck part of the way over

Once at the ridge ahead of Lundin we kept on it. The ridge had some exposure, but our group was confident on the rock and we kept a deliberate pace. I would only take experienced scramblers on the ridge, otherwise it looks like you can drop below the ridge to skirt below it to get to the base of the roped climbing. 

Another party was getting ready when we arrived, so we had to wait a short time for them to begin their climb. For the climbing, we roped up at the end of the ridge when it started to steepen up. There were only a couple of moves and it was mostly 4th class for the first pitch. There was an obvious trail on the north side of the peak at this point so we gathered up the group and unroped. We continued on the climbers trail to its end and it started to steepen up again. We then slung trees as our anchor points. After roping up, the leaders traversed about 30 or so feet and then went straight up to meet the summit ridge, placing a couple of cams. The climbing was easy, in the 4th class range but a fall would be pretty bad so it was a good idea to rope up. On the ridge, we saw a rappel climbers right of where we topped out which we would have used if we ended up descending this way.

From this point, we unroped to follow another climbers trail past a few exposed sections. There is a final couple of moves to the summit that were solid and not very exposed, so we chose to scramble them.

Then we were on the summit! It was an amazing day out, but we were not done. We made good time, even though we kept a moderate pace. So we decided that we should go on to Red Mountain to complete the loop! 

Continuing past summit there is another rappel station on the east edge of Lundin. Photo from near the east side rappel looking back at happy climbers enjoying summit treats on a great day out

This way to Red!

From the base of the rappel -- a single 60m rope got us down. The east ridge also featured some massive bolts, which we didn't get a good photo of.

While the rest of the group finished rappelling, some jets came through the valley past Thompson to give us a show. It was loud and very cool to watch!

The ridge trail over to Red was fairly straightforward to follow. We had a previous GPS track, but were able to follow a climbers trail up and around various aspect of the ridge. Gaia also showed a 'trail' that we met pretty quickly after the rappel just east of Lundin. There were a few exposed sections along the way, but it wasn't too bad

Once back to the main well beaten trail which also led off to Goldmyer hot springs, we followed it down to where it split back up for Red Mountain and we began out ascent. The trail was very scrambly with some chossy sections, featuring some loose stuff but was easy to follow. We choose to stick closer together to avoid any rocks gaining momentum and soon we were on another summit!

The way out we made sure to stick to the common wealth basin trail which made for a more direct line out. We stopped for some berries on the way, but they were very intermittent. We also brought filters and we stopped to get a refill once fully in the basin -- even though the temp was moderate, much of the route was in the full direct sun so we ended up going through our water. I drank about 3.5 liters throughout the day. If it was a very warm day, I'd want to bring more water since it does take quite a while to get to a stream that is flowing. Several of the 'streams' that show on the GPS / topo are dry this time of year

Overall, the trip was a lot of fun! If you have time to do so and you have confident scramblers in your group, the loop is a great option. The trail out went very fast, and it was much more pleasant then the route we took up. I really liked how close the two trail systems are, so it was not a big deal to do the car drop off and just in case we didn't have time for the loop it would have been easy to just reverse course. 

Timeline

Snow Lake TH -- 6:35AM
Start of climbing - 10:00AM
Summit of Lundin - 11:30AM
Base of Red Mountain - 1:45PM
Summit of Red 2:45PM
PCT TH - 5:30PM

Map