Mount Defiance, Web Mountain via Putrid Pete's Peak — Friday, Oct. 11, 2002

Snoqualmie Region > Snoqualmie Pass

we had wonderful loop scramble starting from the mason lake trail - we headed up to Putrid Pete's Peak (West Defiance) traversed banana ridge to the top of mount defiance then down to mason lake and back to the trailhead. views of adams, rainier, baker, glacier, kaleetan, chair, silver,the olympics, seattle's skyscrapers and many many more. we left at noon, took our time and we were back to the car by 7:45 - half an hour of headlamp travel. we started on the banana ridge trail as the wta described: ""From the Mason Lake TH, take the main trail about 1/4 mile until it dog-legs sharply to the right. Split off the main trail by heading straight ahead on an obvious and well-kept path. This trail is not on any of my maps, but someone has put a lot of effort into it!"" follow that trail and take every major junction that goes uphill and to the right. eventually the trail will lead to some cairns. follow these up to the top of pete's peak. from here we headed east toward mt defiance along or near the ridge top (no trail but easy scrambling). a skiff of snow made the junction of the ridge and mt defiance a little tricky (the mt defiance trail can be found here at this junction) follow the mt defiance trail until you see an obvious side trail on the left the heads to the top of defiance. from the great views on top, head back down and continue following the trail to a signed junction and head towards mason lake. the trail disappears briefly on the north side of mason lake, but just head west along the north shore and you find the trail at the outlet. the rest of the trail is obvious. have fun.