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Trip Report    

Winter Scramble - Bearjack Ridge East Peak

Beautiful day in the mountains- despite "heavy, wet and deep snow" in the Teanaway region

Ananth Maniam (ஆனந்த் மணியம்) Ananth Maniam (ஆனந்த் மணியம்)
March 05, 2025
  • Road suitable for all vehicles

  • Heavy, wet and deep snow made for slow moving

    Trip description sent to participants

    Meeting time: Sunday March 2nd at the junction at Teanaway Northfork road here : https://maps.app.goo.gl/UCL8AuSkwJyHtfGQA

    What to expect in this trip : 

    This should be a moderate to strenuous climb - gaining 3300 feet over 14 miles. Summit success is only possible if everyone takes turns breaking trail and helping with navigation.  It will be a good conditioning trip in winter, when most of the mountains are covered with unconsolidated snow or getting more snow/rain dumped on. We will also have great views if it is cloudy or partially sunny. The main goal for this trip is to go out and get a work out. In summer the approach is a trail, but in winter, there will be much more snow - making it scramble. So please come prepared to help with navigation. 

    We will park the cars at the last ploughed section of the North fork Teanaway road and walk the Jack creek road about 4.5-5 miles . The entire section should be in avalanche safe terrain. 

    After about 4.5 -5 miles - we will go offtrail and break trail in snow to Bearjack ridge- east peak first. Once we make this, we will run  the ridge for 2.1 miles to Bearjack ridge - west peak. This traverse is contingent on cornice free terrain and stable snow conditions. The warm weather on Saturday should help with some stable conditions. 

    Likely route we could follow: https://peakbagger.com/climber/ascent.aspx?aid=1852515

We had planned  a climb of Bear Jack ridge east peak and hopefully a traverse to west peak. Making it a 14+ miles and 3500 feet loop an ambitious trip. Blewett pass and Teanaway area are generally great during winter, especially when the weather on the west side is poor
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With about 7 last minute cancellations and one no show. It was just three of us, but that didn't deter us. We started at the trailhead at 8AM.
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The temps were in the low 30's when we started. We made good time on the forest road, which goes for about 5 miles. We didnt need snowshoes or spikes here. 
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After we hit the 5 mile mark, we turned into the forests towards Bearjack ridge west peak. 
The road walk was mostly on compacted snow, thanks to snowmobiles from earlier in the week and the snow was frozen and packed. But we didn't need microspikes.
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Once we took the turn to the woods, I quickly came to a conclusion that it was going to be along day and two summits is going to be a stretch. The snow was deep, heavy and wet. This meant that we were sinking at every step, carrying concrete like snow on our snowshoes. Trail breaking was hard.
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We took turns breaking trail - but it was slow moving. We basically caught the spike to a notch at 4200 which opens into a ridge which runs to the false bump at 4800. We then traverse to the summit. 
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We made it to the ridge at 4200 with a lot of effort. From 4200 the snow while deep and wet, was not super heavy. But still a lot of work.
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Along the ridge at about 4400 feet we saw wildlife monitoring cameras likely by local hunters. Which was great. The clouds were moving in and we got on and off views

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From the sub peak/ bump at 4700 feet, we dropped 100 feet into the woods and gained another 200 feet to the summit.
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While the summit itself is tree'd we did get some views of Teanaway mountains and mount Stuart throughout the day. Summit was a little past 1pm
We decided we will backtrack the way, as a known route is better than an unknown ridge with more sloppy snow. (1.7 miles to the road backtracking the route Vs 3 miles to do the ridge).

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We got back to the road by 3.00 pm and a brutal 5 mile walk back in snowshoes back to the car. Never been happier to see my car again


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Completely beautiful and exhausting day in the mountains with wonderful company. Stopped Twin pine for burgers and Safeway cleelum for gas before heading back home