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Snowking Mountain was the first "hike" of the year, the first time we didn't
bring a rope and gear along. I couldn't believe how small our packs were.
Looking at the map the night before, the trip looked to be quite reasonable for
a North Cascades day hike: 10-12 miles and 6000 feet of elevation.
The following morning though, Aidan, Michael, and I discussed rumors of the spur
road being closed. Sure enough, about two thirds of a mile past the
Cascade River crossing, a massive naked trunk had fallen across the road.
Just beyond that was a deep cleft that was probably carved during the torrential
rains of late 2003. Well, at least the road was good and wasn't graded too
steeply. About 30 minutes later, we arrived at the trailhead. Being
the softies that we are, we cringed at the thought of the wet brush. The
first part of the trail climbs very steeply through an area that was apparently
clear cut a few years ago. While the trees are on their way back, there's
still plenty of brush encroaching on the trail and the boughs dumped the excess
water all over us. The trail, which is well-defined, enters old growth forest after about 400 vertical feet and continues up very steeply for about 2000 feet. Right in the middle of a conversation, somewhere deep in the forest, Aidan let out a yelp that indicated a yellow jacket sting! He scampered upward as I hung in the back cautiously; fortunately, I wasn't stung. The lash came on his left calf and we took a short break for Benedryl and water. After more slogging in the steep forest, Aidan got stung again! He took off upward with even more resolve. I fled the scene off trail to the left but wasn't so fortunate this time, getting a sting on my right forearm. Aidan, I think, took four more stings here. Man, poor guy. Michael escaped again. Of course, he got taken to the woodshed last year with about fourteen stings on the flanks of Wiley Ridge approaching Mount Challenger. The trail finally levels off a bit in the forest at a swampy area and the hiking becomes more sustainable. We arrived at a wooded col, still with no views of the mountain, where we descended for a while and began climbing up to point 5,791 where we had the first real views of Snowking Mountain. They were impressive to say the least.
From this high point, it became apparent that we'd follow the ridge the entire way and not drop to Cyclone Lake and ascend the glacier, which was what the map suggested would be easiest. We could, in fact, see a trail following the wooded ridge from point to point until the final ridge climb to the summit of Snowking. This was already a pretty tiring ascent and I knew we wouldn't enjoy retracing our steps as we lost lots of elevation on our way to the next point along the ridge. Regardless of the disheartening elevation difficulties, the surroundings are impressive. There's a neat granite dike (or something) cutting through the ridge which formed a neat trough of rock and lots of neat outcroppings. Also, we had an entertaining different perspective on the North Cascade peaks. On top of all that, the views down in to the lakes to the west were probably the most impressive I have ever seen. One of the lakes, Snowking Lake, was so turquoise that it looked fake. Another, labeled "5442" on the map, was very clear and the deepest blue in the middle that I've ever seen. This is a place to come and camp and just relax!
After more ridge points, we arrived at a small basin just east of Cyclone Lake. Here, there were lots of white granite talus boulders strewn around. We stashed our packs, except for one which carried food and water and Michael's fleece. Our next ridge point would be the summit. This ridge is a fun little scrambling playground and would be the home of some excellent climbing if it were between 40 and 70 degrees steeper. There's all sorts of fantastic splitter cracks and flakes that we had fun pretending to climb up ("Whoa, check out this perfect hand jam!"). Michael did find a little 30 foot 5.6. I can't remember what he christened it.
Michael and Aidan were consistently in front of me. This time, it wasn't due to my videography or photography. I was just plain tired and couldn't keep up with their pace. I guess I was about consistently 5 minutes behind them. My legs just didn't want to move that fast today. Well, after calculating the total mileage and elevation, I don't feel so bad, but I still wasn't in as good shape as I was last year. The views were impressive in all directions. To the west, toward the Buckindy Crags, was a plethora of white granite slabs. To the right, the awesome alpine lakes looked like jewels tucked away in the trees. And behind us, we could see all the way from Baker, to the Pickets, to Cascade Pass, and the entire Ptarmigan Traverse. The summit pyramid was an easy scramble. I chose the easy way; Michael and Aidan took a 4th class route from the glacier. On the summit we lounged around, partaking of horseplay and talk. We ended up lying down. Eventually, the conversation ended and I dozed off sleeping solid (even dreaming!). Twenty minutes later, the chill woke Aidan up and we realized we needed to start heading down if we wanted to make it out without headlamps. It was 4:05pm when we headed down.
We worried about yellow jackets on the way down. Sure enough, they had their way with us even before the previous spot. This time, just beyond the wooded col, I endured two more stings and Aidan got it twice. I was behind the fellas again and I heard them yell, "Bee!!!" to warn me. Well, it didn't do me any good really...bee where? I tried to be as quiet as possible; no good. I heard a distinct Michael scream as well. Though he wasn't stung this time, he is wont to holler at the little beasts threats. During the steep descent, we planned to stay as close together as possible and move quickly downward along the treacherous terrain. We had memorized the elevation of where the attacks occurred. We also had the hint of my trekking pole, which Aidan abandoned at the major sting site (3880 feet, I think). When we saw it, we ran down frantically. "Go go!!! There's one on me!", I shouted. "AAaaahhh!!!", screamed Michael. We made it safely through that gauntlet, but got tagged twice a hundred feet below. Did they follow us? We were standing around congratulating ourselves when Michael let out a scream that indicated a stinger had hit the mark. "Go go!!!" I felt another sting on my right arm as we bounded down. Curse these vermin!!! That was the end of it though. At least we descended very quickly and arrived at the road literally one second before I said, "Guys, I think we should hit the road soon." The slog down the road was easy enough and it was certainly a pleasure to walk on near level ground again despite it being nearly dark. We did have to use one headlamp to cross the big cleft in the road where we'd parked the cars. Awesome trip, guys, despite the stings. This was the most scenic trip of the year, I thought. Stats:
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