Old Snowy - 7930 ft - 10/7/00
Up at 4am. Roll over to a Matt's house at 5 to pick him up.
Arrive the trailhead at 8:30. The first few miles of the approach are an unfortunate downhill into Goat Creek drainage - and after losing about 300 feet we start to climb. At about the 6K level we break out of the trees onto the Snowgrass Flats and have this huge panorama - Adams is HUGE to the South - St Helens to the SW - and the whole Goat Rocks complex 2000 feet above us to the East.
| First look across Snowgrass Flats to Old Snowy (L) and Ives Peak. |
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We break here and soon after a guy is coming up exclaiming that he has pack mules coming up - he noted our dogs are on the loose. We corral the pooches and let him by. As he walks by he leads one mule by the bridle and warns us that another 'unmanned' mule is coming up. "Joel might stop to check you out but just yell at him and tell him to go on." Sure enough, Joel stops to check us out and is standing about 4 feet away with the big glass eyes staring hard. Right about now Cooper is freaking out. The guy says "throw a rock at him or something - he'll move on" The fusillade begins. One of my projectiles hits him in the nose and he's on his way.
We start North on the Pacific Crest Trail - soon we're running across snowfields left over from last winter. We ID what we think are Ives Peak and Old Snowy and start angling for the Ives Col to the North of Ives Peak.
| Matt toils up the talus pile. The little lava arch was a curiosity. |
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We reach the saddle after an interesting ballet on this talus pile we're climbing. What we're pretty sure is Old Snowy is to our left, but we angle right and do a 100 foot scramble to the top of this knoll to have a look around and make sure we are where we think we are. From the top we are looking down on the Ives and McCall Glaciers and across to the other peaks in the chain, the biggest of which is Mt. Curtis Gilbert, and the Tieton and Conrad Glaciers. The setting is awesome.
We descend back to the Col and start the scree dance up to the top of Old Snowy. Finally we reach the top. The views of our area and 3 major volcanoes are magnificent.
| Mt. Adams as seen through the little lava arch. |
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| Matt and climbing buddies on the summit of Old Snowy |
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| Takin' it all in. View of (R to L) Ives Peak, Goat Citadel, and Mt. Curtis Gilbert from Old Snowy. The Ives and Tieton Glaciers visible below. |
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| Climbing pooches. Goat Lake in the distance below the big cirque. |
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| Above the Packwood Glacier. Mt. Rainier to the North. |
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We have an uneventful trip down but encounter many more people on the way up to camp for the night. It's probably the last clear weather window and people are gettin' it - especially since it's a Saturday. The drudgery of the descent is finally over at 4pm and we hop in the rig for the 3 hour ride back to PDX.
The return trip to this area will definitely feature skis!
| A final look back at Old Snowy and Ives Peak. |
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