Thornton Peak attempt, North Cascades National Park

A whole host of issues prevented us from making it all the way out to Thornton Peak (6935') yesterday: compact ice on the steep switchbacks of the road bested Eric's truck (even in 4WD; added four miles roundtrip of road walking), snow was very slow (either deep powder or heavy and unconsolidated, even in snowshoes), then nearing our turn around time we reached a slope I should have switched from snowshoes to crampons to climb up, then would have needed to switch back after the step. Even there, we were still two miles from Thornton Peak and it was already noon.

Not every day can go as planned...with solid consolidated snow, though, the south ridge of Thornton would be great walking! The approach ridge is not as quick and does not offer the views of other off-trail North Cascades approaches I've done (Stetattle, Pyramid, Little Devil, etc).

"Go behind the privy at the trailhead and start going up"

Snowshoes went on at 3700', not far above this

Finally on the ridge proper after ~3m on the forested approach ridge

East(L)-to-south: X Peak, Trappers Peak, Mt. Ross, Davis Peak, Jack Mountain, Crater Mountain, Ruby Mountain, Colonial-Snowfield group, Haystack-Needle-Horseman's Pack, Primus Peak, Austera Peak, The Trapezoid, Big Devil Peak

Thornton's south ridge (Thornton-Damnation divide); south face of Triumph at left

Not the snow conditions we were hoping for/expecting!

Southwest (L) to northwest: Oakes Peak, Electric-Logger buttes, Bacon Peak, Damnation Peak, Mt. Baker, Berdeen Peak, Hagan Mountain group, Mt. Blum, Mineral Mountain

Only about halfway up Thornton's south ridge; Mt. Despair at left and Triumph's summit peeking over

Mt. Blum; east fork Bacon Creek valley in midground

Eric heading back on Thornton's south ridge

Looking south along a flat portion of the ridge

Miller Peak loop, Teanaway

Miller Peak (6402') sits on the eastern end of the Teanaway, opposite last weekend's trip.

Gavin and I headed up the Miller Peak trail a few hundred yards and then cut straight up to the ridge west of Miller Creek. Our intended route was to traverse that ridge all the way out to County Line ridge and Freedom Peak before traversing back east along County Line to Miller Peak, descending the Miller Peak trail. We traversed a good many bumps, skirted some rocks but eventually cliffed out before Freedom Peak and didn't want to backtrack, drop and traverse to go around, so we headed off toward Miller Peak (which still looked sufficiently far away).

Relevant conditions:

• We used snowshoes for everything above 5700' and kept them on until probably 4500' on the way down
• Approximately 10 blowdowns on the Miller Peak trail, a few requiring detours around through brush and a couple duck-unders
• Starting temperate was 18F; 23F when we finished, though "warm" on the ridges in the sun 

Reaching the ridge proper, above Miller Creek on the west

Traversing the ridge north toward County Line

Traversing to County Line; Gavin's photo

With Rainier, Earl and Stuart

Mt. Stuart and Sherpa Peak

Bobcat tracks

Traversing to County Line; Gavin's photo

On the ridge toward Freedom Peak before turning back; Miller Peak at left

Where we turned around on the ridge to Freedom

Traversing County Line ridge toward Miller Peak

Traversing toward Miller

County Line ridge to Miller Peak

County Line ridge to Miller; Gavin's photo

Miller Peak summit we-fie; Gavin's photo

Thanks Mike and Jared for taking our picture; Miller Peak summit

Descending Miller Peak

Stream fords in 23F air temp...

Yellow Hill-Elbow Peak-Jolly Mountain, Teanaway

The Yellow Hill-Elbow Peak-Jolly Mountain ridge sits at the western edge of the Teanaway. Being a bit further south than the main Teanaway crest and maybe benefiting from an Alpine Lakes rain shadow, it seemed like a good option to get miles in without wading through too much snow.

There are ~five blowdowns in between the TH and Jolly. A dusting of snow covers the majority of the trail from Yellow Hill to point 5850' before Jolly Mountain, and there are a good number of areas with 3-6" of snow; however, route finding is not an issue. The last 1.5 miles to Jolly is consistently 10-12" with windblown drifts of up to 18". Average temperature on the ridge yesterday was ~25F, with a pretty-constant breeze and gusts up to 45+ mph.

Finding a reasonably-fresh wolf track was a huge bonus.

On the ridge between Yellow Hill and Elbow Peak

Heading up Elbow Peak

Climbing up Elbow Peak; fresh snow blowing off the ridge

Elbow Peak summit area, maybe?

Heading toward Jolly Mountain

Heading toward Jolly

Teanaway wolf tracks

Point 5850'+ behind Sir Hikes, approaching Jolly

Deeper snow on Jolly's south slopes

Jolly Mountain summit ridge

Jolly Mountain summit 6443'

Headed home along the ridge; Elbow Peak in the middle, Yellow Hill at left

A few brief views on the way out

Switching gears?

How many more weekends before the waterproof boots and snowshoes need to be dusted off...