Winter Scramble - Old Pass Hill & Cairn Hill

It was easy to set up a car shuttle for this traverse by staging cars in a pull-out across the highway from the end point at FR 9700-126 and starting 2.5 miles west of that at the intersection of SR 97 and Old Blewett Pass Road. The trip can be made shorter by starting further east, as others have done. We started in snowshoes right from the cars and snow depth reached 16-24" at higher elevations. There were just a few blowdowns on the ridge up to Peak 4675 but lots of downed trees and obstacles to negotiate on the ridge up to Cairn Hill. We encountered lots and lots of animal tracks during our trip, including a very large footprint that we think belonged to a big kitty. The section between Peak 4675 and Old Pass Hill involves bypassing a large rock outcropping on steep brushy terrain. In different conditions, an ice axe might be needed here. We managed it without pulling out our ice axes, but we did make use of veggie belays here and there.