3 days Snoqualmie Pass North Traverse trip report

Climbing Route

Follow your GPS and turn left after a U-shaped bend on the PCT near the east side of the mountain. Head left to pass a wall of trees close to the trail. Continue west and climb to the ridge. You may need to bushwhack a little, but there should be some boot paths. After passing the last patch of trees, the base of the climb is obvious where the ridge steepens.

Pitch 1 - Class 4

From the base of the east ridge, scramble about 12 feet of class 2 to a flat area. The climbing becomes class 4 from here. You can belay from this flat spot or from the base. You’ll rappel back to this flat spot with a 60m rope.

Climb the east ridge directly to a rappel station with a golden rappel ring at about 30m. The webbing looked faded, so bring new webbing or cordelette if you plan to replace it. The route is hard to see from the base, but route is easiest way up along ridge. Protection is sparse I only slung a small rock horn. Some cracks may take gear, but the rock is small and detached, so not very inspiring.

Scramble Pitch

From the rappel station, we unroped and went climber’s left. That way led to a class 4–5 move. Instead, go climber’s right and over a tree branch to find a much easier class 3 ramp. Continue up the least exposed terrain to a chossy ledge system, then traverse left. We went up a class 3–4 ramp, then continued class 3 scrambling to the false summit. From there, descend 20 feet to a notch.

Pitch 2

This looks intimidating from the false summit, but it’s easier than it appears. Before the final low class 5 crack, the climbing is class 4 if you follow the easiest line. Watch for loose rock. The infamous chossy pile rappel station here seemed fine, and we didn’t notice any movement during our rappel.

Trip Report

This was day 2 of our Snoqualmie Pass North Traverse. Overnight, all our gear was soaked with heavy condensation. This slowed us down packing in the morning, and we don’t know why it happened, since the forecast called for three sunny days.

We left camp at 8 a.m. It took an hour to reach the pass near Alaska Mountain. We decided to bag the peak, thinking it would be a simple unmaintained trail. It wasn’t. We had to do route finding and bushwhacking, and took round trip in 45 minutes.

After a short break, we headed toward Huckleberry Mountain. Around the 3-hour mark, we left the PCT. We pulled out our gear and tent to dry. Then we hung our food, left one bag with overnight gear, and walked to the base of the climb.

The climb goes straight up to a rappel tree. The climbing was easy, but there wasn’t much protection. I belayed Chutang, then let her pass the rappel station. We unroped there and began the long scramble to the false summit. Most of it was class 3 with some class 4 sections. It can feel exposed for less confident climbers, but you can usually choose less exposed terrain.

From the false summit, the true summit looked intimidating. The 20-foot downclimb to the notch was also exciting. We didn’t find the “easy class 2” descent mentioned in some reports. I downclimbed directly, while Chutang went skier’s right.

The final climb was straightforward if you stay on route. I had to downclimb twice—once because I went the wrong way and ended up on harder terrain, and once because my rope got stuck in a crack. Both times were easy class 4–5, so not scary. Loose rocks are present - Chutang kicked down apple-sized rocks when she climbed directly up the face for fun. The final crack was underwhelming—more of a face move than a crack climb. There’s a stuck cam you could sling, but I placed my own protection.

We retraced our steps and did two rappels to the base. A 60m rope is required. Base-to-base took us three and a half hours.

We collected our gear, returned to the PCT, and hiked another 4.5 miles to Glacier Lake, where we planned to spend the night before climbing Chikamin the next day. Glacier Lake is a popular camping spot—about five other parties were there. We found a small site near the lake. The area is stunning, so it’s no surprise it’s popular. Our total time today was 12 hours at a relaxed pace, reaching camp at 8 p.m. The trail was full of ripe huckleberries, which slowed us down even more.

GPS: https://www.peakbagger.com/climber/ascent.aspx?aid=2938168