Experience Field Trip

Field trip: Compressed Alpine Scrambling Course

Experience Field Trip - Silver Peak

This is a Seattle Alpine Scramble Experience Field Trip to Silver Peak, south of Snoqualmie Pass. Though it leaves from the same trailhead, this is not the summer hike and, although both the gain and mileage are moderate, this is a demanding scramble up into the North Basin of the peak that will test all the scrambling skills you have learned in the course, including crampon use, snow travel and ice ax/glissading skills, rock scrambling, travel across boulder fields, brush/steep forest movement, and backcountry navigation. This is a fun loop trip to a scenic peak!

  • Strenuous 3, Technical 3
  • Moderate
  • Mileage: 6.0 mi
  • Elevation Gain: 2,100 ft
  • High Point Elevation: 5,605 ft
  • Pace: Moderate

Meeting Time: 7:45 a.m., Saturday, June 26, 2021. This is the meeting time to allow for booting up and introductions; departure from the Meeting Place to the trailhead will take place at 8:00 a.m.

Meeting Place: The party will meet in the parking area in front of Travelers Rest, the WSDOT  restroom facility at Snoqualmie Pass.  Gearing up, introductions, and any final car-pooling will occur at the Meeting Place.

Directions: Drive east on I-90 to Exit 52, West Summit.  At the stop sign at the bottom of the exit, turn right and then curve around left/east on the ski area access  highway.  Drive east on this road paralleling the freeway for about half a mile: you will pass a restaurant and gas station on your left and see the signs for Commonwealth Restaurant, Dru-Bru, and the state ski and snowboard museum on your right, just before reaching the Travelers Rest building on your left.  (Travelers Rest, the WSDOT restrooms, occupies the west end of the building; a coffee/gift shop occupies the east end.)  We will meet in front of Travelers Rest to boot up, perform introductions, and do any final car-pooling before caravan-ing to the TH.

Don't forget your crampons!  Do obtain the appropriate paper map and/or download the map to your phone or GPS device.  Give some preliminary thought to likely routes from Windy Pass/the PCT crossing up into the North Basin of Silver Peak.

Route/Place

Silver, Tinkham & Abiel Peaks



  • USGS Snoqualmie Pass

    USGS Lost Lake

    Green Trails Snoqualmie Pass No. 207

    Green Trails Snoqualmie Pass Gateway No. 207S
  • See full route/place details.
Roster
Required Equipment

Required Equipment

See Course Handbook
In addition to the Ten Essentials and all other normal scramble gear and clothing for this time of year, you will certainly want:
Crampons: know how to adjust them to your boots and fit them tightly -- at this point in the course, you should no longer need assistance with fitting your crampons.  Contact the leaders early in the week before the trip if you need to borrow crampons from the scramble committee.
Mountaineering Boots, Ice Ax, Rock Helmet, and Protected Downclimbing Kit (cord loop, hasty harness, and locking 'biner).
Gaiters strongly recommended.

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