Trip Report
Winter Scramble - Teebone Ridge/Southwest Spur (winter)
Wonderful North Cascade views and a great 5000' workout in single digit (°F) temperatures.
Dave Morgan
- Sat, Dec 17, 2016
- Winter Scramble - Teebone Ridge/Southwest Spur (winter)
- Teebone Ridge/Southwest Spur (winter)
- Scrambling
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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Snow started at the trailhead, and we were fortunate to have a broken trail to just past the stream crossing at ~4000' before heading up the ridge. Upper portions of the route had extremely dry snow such that steps already compressed by several people would crumble.
Very cold w/temps in teens and single digits (°F) made gear management requiring dexterity interesting (hands out, then quickly back into gloves/mittens). Park service no longer leaves the bathrooms unlocked at ranger station (budget?) Cascade River road was readily accessible (plowed?) to Lookout Mountain trailhead at ~1250' (the one used for this trip), but the wide shoulder used for parking was NOT plowed. With our high clearance AWD vehicles we were able to make do by simply driving onto the unpacked snow, but deeper snow/less robust vehicles would complicate this. Total time was ~9 hours with ~6 hours up, and ~3 hours down, reaching the cars at sunset. Photos from this as well as other trips can be seen here.