Silver Star Mountain (Okanogan) — Saturday, May. 6, 2023

I decided to do a suffer fest this weekend, although most of the suffering had to do with the driving rather than the actual hiking/climbing.

I left Seattle around 1130p on Fri night with just a short nap after work for sleep. The drive to the Silver Star Sno Park should take about 5h30min, but it took me much longer due to having to stop several times to take a nap. I may have been better off taking a longer stop, but there was the risk of just not waking up again until dawn. Anyways!

While Hwy 20 is technically closed on the east side at Early Winters, it was open to car traffic on the weekend up to about 1/2 mi past the Silver Star Sno Park, and completely open to foot and bike traffic. It should be open to car traffic by Mother's day weekend.

I got to the Sno Park around 8a, and only saw one cyclist heading up. It was cloudy with some wind and rain/snow showers in the forecast. After eating breakfast, drinking lots of coffee, and sorting out my gear, I hit the trail. There is patchy snow immediately. I occasionally found traces of the climber's trail, but most of it is still buried. I just followed the creek all the way up the valley. Lots of rotten snow bridges and wells to punch through. Lots of old ski tracks.

Once I broke out into the open basin above tree line, I put on my snowshoes. The snow was wet and heavy. Beautiful views of Silver Star, the Wine spires and Vasiliki Ridge! And occasional gusts of cold wind coming down from the various gullies. I traversed over to the left side of the basin, then headed up and up. The snow got a bit better with elevation, but still not ideal. I was getting a bit tired - my brain was begging for me to make a snow nest and take a nap. Onward!

On the glacier, the snow had a decent wind crust on it, but snowshoes were fine all the way up to the col. No crevasses. Once at the col, I found a spot sheltered from the wind and had a longer snack break. It was hard to resist the temptation of curling up for a quick nap.

The summit block was partially melted out. I swapped out snowshoes for crampons. The snow was not great - I wallowed thigh deep through a few spots. The crampons were 100% not necessary, and definitely made for some awkward scrambling on rock for the last 20-30ft. But I made it!

Rather unfortunately, the top was socked in, but I put my imagination to work. I didn't linger long. I went back down to the col, stopped to strap my snowshoes to my pack. I considered going back down via Burgundy col, but I didn't like the idea of a long road walk back to my car.

So, I kept my crampons on until I got past the icy section, then plunge stepped all the way back down to the basin. I was able to get in a short glissade. Then snowshoes down the basin and part of the way down the valley - the snow had gotten much softer through the day. I was saw some fresh skin tracks lower down in the valley - where did these skiers head to?

Finally back at my car, I cleaned up myself and my stuff, shoveled a bunch of food and caffeine down my belly, and headed out for a very long overnight drive to do Eldorado the next day.................

I realized later that I had gotten sunburnt quite badly. In fact, this was the first time I'd ever gotten my ears sunburnt. I knew I should've sunscreened when I pulled out my sunglasses!

Total about 9.5hrs C2C, 9.2mi.

More Information on this Trip Report

• https://caltopo.com/t/1DRDU1K4CQ