2/11, Saturday, 9 of us met at South Renton P&R at 6am for a snow scramble to Chutla Peak. The event organizer M.J. picked me up from downtown at 5:30am. One gal (Do) is 10 min late, saying that her defrost was frozen...(?) As we were loading the cars, Br said he forgot his snowshoes. So he went home and would meet us at Longmire. This is not a large group, but still a lot of waiting around. Br actually arrived at Longmire while we were putting on boots.
Water level is very low. Only saw snow just a few minutes before the park gate.
First, we tried to drive to the TH, but there were red cones at the end of the government housing. So we drove back to Longmire's main parking lot, and walked to TH. More and more cars arrived at Longmire, waiting for the gate to open at 9am. At this bridge, Do realized that she forgot her snowshoes in the car. Getting cold waiting for her in the shade. At least the view on the bridge isn't too bad. Finally we got going, already past 9am! I left home at 5:10am!
The Eagle Peak trail zigzags up a steep forested slope. The trail is gentle. Not much snow below 4000'. At some point, I put on micro-spikes. Tried to cut the zigzag a couple of times in snow. Not a good idea: sinking...
El, Qi, Re, and I were more or less hiking together. El is very fast (climbed Glacier Peak in 1 day in October), he talked about his recent trip to Hawaii (Napali coast hike on Kauai and lava flow on Big Island) and showed me photos, and tips (need camping permit even for a day hike, don't hike when wet: slippery clay). That slowed him down so I could keep up. The rest of the group is quite slow and we don't even hear them.
There were 2 groups of hikers ahead of us. So the trail is visible, and easy to follow.
The zigzag reaches an opening around 5000' (near the junction to Wahpenayo Peak).
We put on snowshoes.
Here, met an old guy chatting with a young couple.
The binding of his new snowshoes' binding is too small for his boots. So, he called it quit.
Good view of our objective.
I headed up, still following the track made by the others. Into the woods again. Met an older couple, the guy was about to give up. Out into a very flat open area. Talked to 2 guys waiting for their friends. The young couple headed up towards the saddle between Eagle and Chutla, as is on the map. I waited for my group. Ate half of my lunch.
When El arrived, he showed me a track different from the GPS map I downloaded.
According to last Nov's trip report, too much snow on the jagged edge, making the traverse from the saddle dangerous.
When Qi and Re arrived, we discussed what to do next. See the track we used in the end.
Traversing the slope is a pain. The snow is deep and not smooth.
Qi took over to break the trail.
Then we headed up. Still in snowshoes.
The gully was getting too steep for me to feel comfortable on snowshoes, so I took them off.
Put spikes on.
A few meters up, saw Qi standing behind a tree changing to crampons.
The gully was in the shade, and it was getting quite icy.
At some point, I had to use the axe' pick to pull myself.
Found a tree and swapped into crampons. That took me a long time, as I was standing on a small delicate perch.
Re went past me, and joking at my stupidity of using spikes here.
In fact, above my tree, it was no longer icy.
More and more snow, and we sank.
Re was sinking so much, that I passed him again.
Now, I heard El was talking to someone below. I guess my group had finally arrived.
Reached a small saddle, flat enough to rest, swapping into snowshoes and waited.
But only El and Re came up, both were hyper-ventilating and worrying about going down.
Qi continued to the summit, and I followed.
No longer steep, but with steep drop on one side, and cornice on the other.
Here's Qi at the summit.
The photo on the right is the view to SE. We could see Adams, Hood and Helens. Rainier to the north.
No wind, amazing!
The summit is not large enough for all of us. After some photos, Qi and I headed back, so Re and El could walked the narrow ridge.
We waited for them at the saddle to go down together, because two of them were freaking out a bit.
All is good. We down climbed the icy part. Once at the traverse, we put snowshoes back on. The other 5 of the group were waiting. They practiced snow climb while waiting. On the way out, I took snowshoes off, tried to glissade. But the snow was too soft, and couldn't get it going. The rest of the trail is uneventful and boring. Back to the car at 5pm.
Off to a restaurant. I don't eat indoors, especially when the restaurant is busy. In this place, the 9 of us sat at two different places. The waitress is nice, but clumsy. First brought wrong orders, and then, dropped some fries onto Am.
Our car made a bathroom stop for Do. She was complaining about a coworker who went to Mailbox with her but ran up the hill without her, so she ended up hiking alone. Surprising that I didn't fall asleep. M.J. dropped me off downtown, then I walked home.
Total, maybe 7.5 miles, 3300'.
