Naches, Yakima & Seymour Peaks

Trip Date: 8/9/2014
Round trip miles: 7
Elevation gain: ~3000
Elapsed Time: 7 hours

On Saturday we scrambled 3 peaks at Chinook Pass: Yakima, Tahtlum, and Naches. For Yakima you head for the saddle above the parking lot, there are various bootpaths to follow. At the saddle head towards the summit approx 100 feet, then traverse below the summit until a steep gully appears on the left. Follow this to the ridge (lots of loose rock), then the ridge to the summit. 1 mile roundtrip from the cars.

After Yakima, we headed over to Tahtlum. Follow the PCT until it starts to make a right turn around Naches. Look for a bootpath on the left. This bootpath stays below the ridgeline on the south side. If you try to run the ridge to the summit you will likely end up having to backtrack due to various cliffs. After a while the bootpath reaches the saddle, then continues on the ridge straight toward the summit. Excellent views from here.

After Tahtlum, we talked about trying to gain Naches from the south ridge. Having been there previously a few weeks ago, I was uncertain that it was even possible, but we decided to try it anyway. We followed the Naches Loop trail until it reached a small tarn, then headed up the ridge, eventually reaching an unnamed south summit. From there we followed the ridge to the base of the summit block. We tried various gullys to get to the top, and although we were only perhaps 30 feet vertical, we all agreed that they appeared to be class 5. So instead of going up directly, we instead traversed on the east side below the summit block, which was also tricky (but doable) because of the small rocks on hard dirt. So we traversed past the summit and found the gully I had seen previously on the left, and took that until it led directly to the summit. For the way down we took the normal north ridge route (described in my previous report).

Bugs were thankfully not an issue today.