Winter Scramble - Littler Kachess Peak

This was a beautiful cold, clear, wind free day. The snow was a bit crusty, but with a light powder once we got some elevation. We were climbing through open, mature east side forest which required little or no bushwhacking. Somebody had been up the day before on snow shoes leaving us with a very nice track that we followed off and on. The only real problem was that the road was not plowed thus requiring a mile plus hike from the cars to the trail head. We made it to Kachess Beacon (apparently aka Littler Kachess), took a quick break, and then headed on up toward Little Kachess which is 1.3 miles further along on an excellent open ridge run. We got to within 0.4 miles of Little Kachess and had a clear view and what looked like a long and straight forward final run to the peak - see photo. However, before that there was an exposed section of ridge with cornices to the right, a steep slope to the left, and a very steep slope going forward. We were able to cross to the end of this short ridge, but the way forward was less clear. The next step would have been to down climb the steep slope to the left to the tree line and then find our way back to the final ridge section to the peak. We opted not to proceed. Nonetheless, it was a beautiful day and if you hit it right this trip is worth a try.