Hadley Peak

The original plan was to do Witches Tower, but with a marginal forecast and reports of smoke from the Chiwaukum fire getting into the Icicle Creek area, I decided to change our destination to Hadley Peak. I had done it many years ago, but must have done it much earlier in the summer as there wasn't nearly as much snow as I remembered. Sidehilling on the south side of Chowder Ridge got to be pretty tedious, and most of us had had enough by the time we descended to get around the last obstacle; also, we had seen some distant thunderclouds and were somewhat concerned that the weather could turn before we made it back to the relative safety of Skyline Divide. So we turned around even though there was only about 500 feet of elevation remaining. On the plus side, the views were great, especially before high clouds developed, and there were plenty of flowers.