Humpback Mountain

A group of three experienced scramblers chose Humpback as a close-to-home destination on a day with an iffy weather forecast. Happily, the weather was better than expected – we only felt a few raindrops and even saw some sun on the summit (although not many views).

Road 5510 was open and free of snow so we parked at the upper start option, the gate by 5510-110 (around 2900 ft elevation). A high clearance vehicle is recommended given some potholes. We left the car at 9:30am.

The road walk was simple and free of snow, although there were some signs of logging work that had been done. We easily found the trail turn off and headed up through the forest.

We did not hit snow until around 4200 ft, and it seemed to be quickly melting out. We chose to alternate between snow and rock at certain points because the terrain looked better. The snow was fairly soft and not very deep so we experienced some postholing and found a few weak snow bridges, especially near trees and the boulder field. Micro spikes were somewhat helpful in the icier/firmer spots, although it was largely too soft for traction to help.

We used trekking poles until we reached the summit, where we took a long lunch break. Watch out for a cornice near the top. On the way down, we switched to ice axes and face-in downclimbed the steepest section of the snow close to the summit. Ice axes and microspikes continued to be helpful until we ran out of snow. Some of us wore microspikes until we reached the road, since even the dirt was slippery.

We returned to the car around 3pm, just as it began raining – good timing.

Right now, there is enough snow that this destination could count as a student snow scramble, but that might not last long. If you do lead this as a student scramble, given the snow/rock transitions, it would be good to have a smaller group and/or have some experienced assistant instructors to help the students at the trickier transitions. Participants must be comfortable with face-in downclimbing and it would be good if they already had some experience on rock.

Gear brought and used: ice axes, microspikes, trekking poles

Gear brought but not used: snowshoes