Seeking to escape the rain, Kidz Won't Hike, SoaringEagle, and I headed over past Blewett Pass to Tronsen Ridge area to tag Tronsen Ridge Peak 4970. It starts at a pull off about 4 miles north of Blewett Pass. This is a road hike followed by a ridge climb. My hope was there was still a good amount of snow left, so I brought my backcountry ski setup, the others brought snowshoes. I was sorely disappointed.
We arrived at the pull out off of Hwy 97 at the intersection of Five Mile Rd. The road is blocked by snow about 100' in. I thought that was a good sign and it looked like snow ahead from the car. After we got geared up, I carried my skis for a bit and there was shortly a break in the snow, so I put on the skis after that. For a short while, we were able to stay on snow, it wasn't great, but I was able to skin up. But after 10-15 mins we hit the first good break in the snow. I had to carry my stuff to the next patch and then skin again. This happened 3-4 times until we hit the point where we were going off of the road up onto the ridge up to the peak. Near the top of the ridge, the patchy snow ended and we decided to leave the skis and snowshoes behind for the final mile and 1200' gain to the summit. It was at that point that I really wished that I had thrown some trail runners in my pack. But no, so I had to clomp up the dirt and rock in my ski boots. Went OK, a little more painful on the way down. I did my best to ski out on the road snow patches, all I could do was try not to fall or go too fast. The grade is very minimal. There was a narrow section of firm snow from previous boot packs then very soft snow outside of that. Anyway, lessons were learned!
Stats: 4.7 miles, 1900' gain, 3:20 total time
Gear: Skis, skins, poles, etc. Wouldn't recommend ;)
GPX: https://www.peakbagger.com/climber/ascent.aspx?aid=2794113
Comments