I had a fine ramble up to Mt. Teneriffe yesterday. I went up the Teneriffe Falls*/Southwest Ridge scramble route, and down the standard route. The waterfalls are flowing magnificently due to the abundant snowmelt; they are like a duplicate version of Wallace Falls. Snowpack is encountered at 4000 feet, but otherwise the scramble trail is in good condition. I had never done this route before. I found it to be scenic and really fun. Doubless it will become more popular in the future. The trail portion of the standard route is buried in heavy snowpack that will take at least another month to melt. Much of the road portion is still snowed over above 3500', especially in the basin where the shack is located. Jay * I don't like using the usual name for this falls, which I think is poor. Somebody has to come up with a good name for this beautiful place.

I’ve been saving Mt. Teneriffe for a rainy day but decided to do it with good weather. It turns out I didn’t get many views from Teneriffe but that wasn’t the case on Dixie Peak. I started on the usual route up Teneriffe, a few miles past the Mt. Si trailhead at 12 noon. The road walk went quick as I was studying my math homework the whole time. When I hit snow at 3,400 feet, I cut uphill until hitting the road over to Teneriffe at 3,900 feet. At this point, I snowshoed the road over to the pass (4,150 feet) northwest of Mt.Tenneriffe. From the pass, the route follows the ridge to the summit. No snowshoes needed in the trees, the snow is nice and hard. I was disappointed at the summit because the clouds were blocking much of the views. I could see above the clouds to Rainier and further but no views east or north. I had also followed some fresh tracks to the summit but upon reaching the top, nobody was there. It was kind of weird. I backtracked back to the pass where I left the road. Now I just continued up the other ridge heading west to Dixie. Dixie Peak is a name given to point 4606 between Crater and Rachor lakes. The ridge traverse was an easy and quick walk. Soon I was heading north and reaching the top of Dixie. I was very surprised how nice it was. The clouds had all dropped below the peaks. The summit was nice but a lower summit about 10 minutes north looked much nicer. The snow was melted and it seemed to be August up there. Reaching this lower summit was amazing. Imagine looking over toward this peak with it sticking above the cloud layer by only 200 feet. Then looking above the clouds as far as the eye could see. In the distance, Mt. Baker was poking above the layer of white. Then looking east, only the top 500 feet of each peak was above the clouds. I think I shot a role of film. The summit had a nice layer of plants to lay out on. There was no better place to be at 5pm on a weekday. Soon I had to depart this little secret paradise and get back home. I returned to the true summit and then took the ridge south and then southwest before dropping back to the road to Tenneriffe. Route down was quick and uneventful. The entire trip took 6.5 hours. Didn’t see anyone but there was a lot of tracks up to Tenneriffe.

This is one of my preferred ""conditioning"" hikes in the Seattle area. Why? It can be fairly long (14 miles round trip), it has a 4000 foot elevation gain, you can do it pretty much year round and it usually has few if any other hikers on it this time of year, which means that there won't be many witnesses to the sometimes embarassing state of my physical condition. In addition to all that, Teneriffe has never failed to supply me with exposure to every possible weather condition that a hiker might face, so its a great chance to find out if that jacket really is rainproof, if those new Polartec socks are actually warmer than your cozy old wool ones or if you really can put on your snowshoes while facing a gale force wind on a 45 degree incline. The hike is really on an old forest road, not a trail, though near the top, the trees and bushes are closing in on it, making it feel more like a trail every year. Its also a rough road, in many places assembled with large rocks that make for difficult footing and it can actually be more difficult coming down if you have weak or strained knees.There is lots and lots of runoff this year from the mountain, so there is water on the road in places, but it is minor. The creeks and streams of runoff are beautiful right now, running very hard. I started out the walk in cloudy misty, weather, but at about 1400 feet, a serious hailstorm hit and I tossed on a coat. Then, the sun came out and I had blue skies and got so hot I had to peel off some layers and don sunglasses. Then, at about 2500 feet, the wind started up and I began to get lite snow, joining a previous dusting that was clinging to the side of the road. At about 3000 feet, I hit the level that had remained under snow and I put on my snowshoes. It was tough going from that point on up. Hikers must have been through here when the snow was soft and melting, because today their old steps were all frozen imprints making walking difficult. Then. . .when I neared the ridge, our wonderfully schizoid weather hit me again. First gentle, beautiful snow. But that didn't last. It turned into a wicked blizzard powered by a wind that blasted up the side of the mountain. I threw all my snow clothes back on and continued along the ridge near the top at around 4200 feet, but I found myself above a clear cut area with the frozen snow blasting me against the mountainside. I stopped to decide whether to continue on or not while I scarfed down a snack and some water. When I was finished, I turned to look back at my progress and through the curtain of snow, I could see that my tracks had become completely obscured already by new snow. It was time to go back. And just to make sure that I got a taste of ALL our local weather options. . . it started raining!

This was to be our second attempt at this illusive traverse. The first time we had low visibility and wound up following other tracks that went in a circle? We went up Wednesday afternoon, go to the summit of Si at noon, and started the traverse in deep wet powder, a real slog. We followed the fireroad to just near Teneriffe, but we had no visibility and only knew that we needed to head East, but that would put us somewhere in a basin so we continued on a ridgeline that lead us to the Twilightzone. After wandering around for 2 hours, we hit our turnaround time and headed back. Once we were back at the end of the fireroad, we looked back and saw the faint outline of Teneriffe. We were way off is all I can say, about 1/2 mile past it heading north. Will only try this again on a clear day. I sure hope no one follows our tracks! scott@nwog.org

To get there drive about 1 mile past the parking lot for Mt. Si. There is a small turnoff/parking area. We parked at the gated area at about 900' elevation. From here it's all up - mostly up. I knew this wasn't going to be a good day from the get go. It was taking me an awful long time to warm up. The first mile or so of the road is fairly flat with only about 400' of gain. After that the road grade steepens as is switches back and climbs the ridge. At about 3800' the grade eases just a bit before meeting up with the trail junction to Mt Si. At 4300'. We had some pretty awesome weather. Sunny blues skies and warm. We were treated to views along the way of Rainier to the south, Mt Si to the west, and Teneriffe our destination to the east. The trail on the road is pretty well compacted and snowshoes aren't really necessary. In fact, it wasn't until we reached 3200' that there was snow on the road. There is only a short stretch just shy of the summit where they came in handy. The road drops about 200' in elevation as it heads NE to a small pass that on the map is just S of Rachor Lk. From this pass we finally left the road and headed slightly SE to bump 4650' then dropped about 160' to a saddle NW of Teneriffe. From the saddle we had to gain 300' to the summit. The last stretch as we came out of the trees was a bit icy and the cleats on the snowshoes did come in a bit handy. From the summit was had unobstructed views in all directions. Baker, Shuksan, and Glacier Pk to the north. Rainier to the South. And we could even make out Seattle nestled next to the Sound with the Olympics visible in the distance. I had never done this trip before as was quite surprised that while Si is jammed packed with hikers on a clear day, Teneriffe left a whole different impression. It's only the next big bump on the ridge after Si but it feels so much more remote. After a nice leisurely lunch at the summit we headed back down the road to the car. I have to say that while I really enjoyed this trip I hated the road trip out. By the time we got back to the car my feel were screaming for freedom. Most of this trip is on the road and my poor feet really took a beating. Stats: 4.5 hrs up, 3.5 hrs down, 12 miles, 4650' gain. Janet.Putz@eddiebauer.com