Usually Becky and I would never consider staying in Seattle for part of a three day weekend, but my favorite band was playing at Bumbershoot on Saturday, so Becky was a good sport and rather than a three day mountain trip, we opted for a Jane's Addiction concert and a two day mountain trip.
We'd hiked in to Chiwawa basin last September, just a few days before our wedding....we thought the scramble route up that side of Chiwawa would be an easy scramble with some nice views. Some bad bushwacking at treeline (and Becky slipping off a log and slicing her shin open) put an end to that trip. Fast forward to this year, we thought we'd give Chiwawa a go via the Spider Gap/Lyman glacier route. A pleasant hike up to Spider Meadows and then a short, steep grind to treeline and over Spider Gap got us to camp by mid-afternoon.
The Lyman glacier looked steep...but it had been skied the week before and we knew that staring straight on at it was making it look steeper than it really was (at least thats what we hoped).
Up early Monday morning we cramponed up the moderately steep slopes, and got to the final slope to the summit ridge. The last bit of snow was still rock solid, perched above a large crevasse, and our meager crevasse rescue supplies weren't nearly enough gear to start pounding pickets and screws to protect the last bit.
The slope wouldn't be softening for at least a couple hours, so rather than wait around till afternoon and easy conditions, we had a nice break, took in the views, and headed down....skunked again on Chiwawa, but happy we got to check out a really pretty part of the Cascades we hadn't been to yet.
We'd hiked in to Chiwawa basin last September, just a few days before our wedding....we thought the scramble route up that side of Chiwawa would be an easy scramble with some nice views. Some bad bushwacking at treeline (and Becky slipping off a log and slicing her shin open) put an end to that trip. Fast forward to this year, we thought we'd give Chiwawa a go via the Spider Gap/Lyman glacier route. A pleasant hike up to Spider Meadows and then a short, steep grind to treeline and over Spider Gap got us to camp by mid-afternoon.
The Lyman glacier looked steep...but it had been skied the week before and we knew that staring straight on at it was making it look steeper than it really was (at least thats what we hoped).
Up early Monday morning we cramponed up the moderately steep slopes, and got to the final slope to the summit ridge. The last bit of snow was still rock solid, perched above a large crevasse, and our meager crevasse rescue supplies weren't nearly enough gear to start pounding pickets and screws to protect the last bit.
The slope wouldn't be softening for at least a couple hours, so rather than wait around till afternoon and easy conditions, we had a nice break, took in the views, and headed down....skunked again on Chiwawa, but happy we got to check out a really pretty part of the Cascades we hadn't been to yet.
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