Super tough trip with Glen99’s up to Easter Peak. The Miller River Road is in great shape up where we parked at the decommissioned West Fork Miller River Road. The trail up the old river is in great shape, with nary a blowdown. We stayed on this trail for about 0.6 miles before heading up thru the forest just past the largest creek crossing.
The first 1000ft involved the most bushwacking and downed trees. There were also many vertical rock faces that we had to negotiate, plus it was mega steep.On the way down we went a different way and had to find a one foot ledge to carefully get down this particular section. Then next 1000ft gain was again super steep, but at least it was more open forest.
At around 3400ft we hit a large talus field that was snow covered. We put on snowshoes as the snow was very soft. What made this section so hard is that we had many voids in the talus that we would occasionally post hole in. We veered right of the large lock face, and then headed up a super steep snow covered slope veering into the trees .
At around 3800ft we did a rising traverse up to the ridge at 5000ft,which wasn’t easy due to the sloppy snow conditions. Occasionally we would have to head straight up 100 vertical feet. On the way down we had to down climb face in with our snowshoes. Using crampons wasn’t going to work as the snow was too soft, and we would of been post holing on every step.
Once we were on the ridge we thought we had it made, but we were so wrong. With the low snow coverage we had to down climb face a lot of scrambling with our snowshoes, as there were many jagged rocks visible on this narrow ridge, plus it was annoying to get your snowshoes stuck on the numerous dead limb snags.
About 100-200 ft below the summit was the crux of the trip. A super steep snow climb with a horrible run out. Coming down this section took extra care. I slipped coming down, but was able to self arrest, just like I did the other 100 times I slipped and fell coming down the numerous snow slopes. Allegedly there was a lot of cussing and whining on my part on the way down!😬. We had helmets on and had our ice axes out for the entire descent in the snow.
The summit had some outstanding views. So many snow capped peaks on the bluebird February Day.
We basically took the same route back, veering a bit once below the snow line to save some time as we wanted to finish before nightfall. Just beware if trying this, that you’ll probably have to deal with some shenanigans as there is a lot super steep terrain, cliff faces, and so many blowdowns.
6.2 miles with 4230 ft gain
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