A quick peak bagging trip to tag 2 summits with good views of pacific crest near the snoqualmie pass.
About 8 inches of snow fell at mid elevations over the past week reported, so we opted for a lower-elevation outing near Snoqualmie Pass, starting at the Mirror Lake trailhead. The road to the trailhead is in okay shape for a standard SUV.
After walking along the washed out road and a quick 1 mile hike, we arrived at Mirror Lake, where Tinkham Peak’s east summit rises above the water. We followed the trail around the south side of the lake and then ascended the southwest ridge. We soon regretted not bringing our gaiters, since the snow was around 1 to 2 feet deep at these elevations, far more than we expected. But the terrain on this side is easy enough, and we quickly made it to the east summit. This summit is supposed to be lower than the west summit, but the register box is here. The view from the summit was really good! You can see a lot of peaks along the Pacific Crest around Snoqualmie Pass.
After a brief rest, we headed to the west summit. The traverse over was fairly easy, with a defined path. But when we tried to get off the west summit via the northwest ridge and slope, we found ourselves making exposed class 3 moves on snow covered rock. We decided to put on our microspikes, which helped a lot.
We then descended to the saddle between Silver Peak, Abiel Peak, and Tinkham Peak and started walking toward Abiel. There were some sections of slippery rock, but they were manageable. The view from Abiel Peak isn’t great, so it’s probably not worth the extra work if time is tight. We retraced our steps to the saddle, then descended via the PCT to our car. Overall, it was a good outing, except for one short, spicy section downclimbing Tinkham’s west peak.
