Mount Teneriffe — Saturday, Feb. 23, 2002

Snoqualmie Region > North Bend Area

I headed out fairly early and reached the Mt. Teneriffe Road by 8:10. It was lightly snowing, much better than the rain of the last few days. The road was snow free for the first mile and only a small amount covered it up to about 2100'. When I started postholing to my knee it was time to put on the snowshoes. The snow was well settled and trailbreaking was fairly easy. It was nice to see the unmarked snow with 3""-5"" fresh on top. I was resigned to having to break trail all the way to the top or at least as far as my legs would carry me. When I reached the Si junction I was very surprised to see two fresh sets of snowshoe tracks heading towards Teneriffe. The nicely compacted trail allowed me to speed up. At the top of the first steep stretch I caught up with Myron. He led a Mountaineer trip over Si to Teneriffe I took about 7 years ago. I had not seen him since. It's amazing who you run into on the trail. A short time later I caught up with the trailbreaker and gave him a break. Dieter was climbing Teneriffe for the first time in 31 years. I hope I am still out in the Winter when I'm his age. It was interesting to be eye to eye with the cabin near the pass. It is quite a ways above the road. I would guess the snow is about 8-10 feet deep at that point. From the pass to the summit was a very nice scramble. The last climb to the summit was steep. Fortunately, there is fresh snow over the ice or I would have turned back. The summit had no wind at all. The sun was going in and out of the clouds. When it was out it was very pleasant though only in the upper 20's. 3:55 from the car to the summit. I just missed my 12:00 target. A very enjoyable trip up. It was so nice I spent an hour on top. As I was leaving three more hikers were nearing the summit. All together six of us reached the summit today. The trip down was a long slog. Totals were nearly 14 miles and about 4500' gained. 6 miles without and 8 miles with snowshoes. 2:55 coming down. Clouds on the way up to keep me cool and mostly sunny on the way down. I hope for at least one terrific snowshoe trip each Winter and this one qualified.