John Guilford's Hikes
South Early Winter Spire on 1992-06-07
Date: 1992-06-07
People: (including myself): Norm, Matt, Julie, Lori
My Alt. Real Alt.
Start: 7:45
Base of Climb: 10:15
Leave: 12:00
Out: 2:00
The trail in to the base of the climb is 2 to 3 miles with a gain of about
2000 ft. The trail is remarkably nice for the approach to a climb and
starts at the Blue Lake trailhead just to the east of Washington pass on
the Cascade Highway. The trail initially parallels the highway. Instead
of taking the trail from the trailhead, we hiked down the highway (to avoid
some muddy places in the trail) to the end of the guard rail and then
picked up the trail again. At first the trail is good quality and winds
through the trees. We hit occasional snow patches, but the ground is well
drained and wasn't muddy. About half way there, you break out of the trees
and start climbing a slab area. This time of the year it was all under
snow. We just went pretty much straight up the snow field (meandering a
bit to miss brush or an occasional creek) to the south side of Early Winter
Spires.
Unfortunately, as we were setting up for the climb, the group above us
dislodged a rock fall. Julie took a bad hit and we had to abort the climb,
but, thankfully, she was able to walk out on her own.
Please send comments or corrections to
john_guilford@keysight.com
Last updated on: Mon Jun 8 16:50:16 PDT 2015
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