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Bean Creek #1391.1, Earl Peak — Jun. 12, 1999

Snoqualmie Region > Salmon La Sac/Teanaway
Ross B.
Beware of: snow conditions
 
Since the weather was supposed to be mediocre this day, we decided to head East, to the Teanaway region. We hit snow at about the fork between Beverly Creek and Bean Creek trails (4,000 feet). There were a lot of trees that had been knocked down from climax avalanches from this point to about a half mile further. It is tricky finding the trail, but as long as you cross over the creek and stay to the left of it, you will probably be OK. After getting about due East of Earl Peak, we headed straight for it. This was a mix of snow and rock scrambling. The view from the top was outstanding as the weather was much better than expected (as you might guess, the view of Stuart is the highlight). We then traversed the easy snow ridge NW to point 6743. The ridge NE also looks nice. After lounging on 6743, we followed the next ridge SW to another nice point. This ridge required a little more rock scrambling. At one point, we decided to end the constant up/down over the rocks and drop onto the snow (either side has some nice snow for traversing). After reaching the point to the East (approx. 6600) we continued South and then West along the ridge making a nice horseshoe route. We slid easily through the trees from here. This hike would be very easy any time in the spring, because of the easy route finding and moderate slopes. Just follow Bean Creek to the cirque, take a left and hit the pass between the 6600 point and its partner to the South. It is an easy hike North to point 6600 from that pass. That particular point had a view to rival that of Earl.

Bean Creek #1391.1 and Earl Peak — May. 21, 1999

Snoqualmie Region > Salmon La Sac/Teanaway
Beware of: snow conditions
 
The N. Fork Teanaway road is now open to about 1 mile from Beverly Campground and it is melting out fast. Continuous snow still starts at the trailhead. I spent the night on top of Earl Peak in perfect weather. 10 skiers and a party of 25 mountaineers taking a scrambling course visited the summit on Saturday. Hot weather with a faint breeze. The snow was soft and the going was slow, but most of the rocky ridges have melted free and make for fine scrambling. I saw some huge moats near some of them. SE-facing slopes were very unstable. Every snowball I threw started a point-release slide maybe an inch in depth -- which I think is relatively new snow. Other slopes seemed stable.