Three Fingers — Saturday, Aug. 29, 1998

North Cascades > Mountain Loop Highway

I slept in and didn't get up to the trailhead until 11:30am (it's a long drive up road 41, about 18 miles of gravel).So it would have to be a speed ascent or nuttin. I booked itup to Tin Pan gap on a pretty dry trail, except forone or two places where the stream chooses togo down the trail (why do I have to go uphill, but the streamgets to go downhill') Soon after that I nearly bonked from the overexertion. Luckily thetrail is nearly snowfree to the tippy top, exceptfor a 200m snowfield just below the final rock climb.There were two other minor snowfields to cross, but no more than10m or so (we are reporting in metric today). Afterclimbing two solid ladders and one kinda/sorta dicey ladder, but seemed secure,I sat at the top, hoping a smidgen of energy would return. I shouldaate earlier, and ran out of water too. Oh well, it's not likeI haven't done that 100 times before! The way down wasquite slow due to numerous blueberry problems. Thosepesky blue fruits constantly impede progress, butI did my best to rid the area of them. Barely made a dent. Ice axe not totally necessary, you can get by without if the weather is warm enough to soften the final snowfield a bit (and it isn't all that exposed anyway).See ya on the trail!