Day hike of Anaconda Peak on March 2nd '26.
ROAD: Fine for a regular car. We parked on the shoulder of Mountain Loop Hwy right at the start of the Marten Creek trail. There was room for our 2 vehicles.
MARTEN CREEK TRAIL: In good shape and snow-free for the 1.3 miles we were on it. From there, we dropped down to the river which had patchy snow around it. We were able to schwack our way to a log jam and crossed the river on a snowy log - we used microspikes for the crossing.
BUSHWHACK: Steep forest to gain the ridge. No real bootpath per se, but the vegetation was open enough to not be too miserable. Still took quite a few branches to the face and I did wipe out on a slippery tree branch!
We eventually gained the flatter part of the ridge where snow increased. We put on snowshoes at around 3,500' when snow was deep enough to be annoying, but also shallow enough for us to be tripping on plenty of obstacles. I don't think the snowpack was ever deeper than 1 to 2 feet the entire day.
We switched to crampons at 4,250' at the base of the final steep ridge, where we stashed our snowshoes (definitely the right call). The ridge went pretty much straight up, with lots of tree-hugging, brush-bashing, and veggie belays. The crux was a narrow section that we had to traverse to get around a tree that had a steep drop on either side, so we used our ice axes for all of 10 feet.
The summit was open, with lovely close views of the Mountain Loop and all the peaks beyond. We enjoyed a calm, sunny day before reversing our steps. The snow was slushy and a bit slippery, but we made it down with care, hanging on to lots of trees. We descended in crampons until the snow got patchy.
I got lazy and just walked through the river on the way out which wasn't terrible. Made it out before sunset, 8hrs 41 mins total time.
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