Scott Paul Trail — Friday, May. 16, 2003

North Cascades > Mount Baker Area

Drove to within a half mile of the trailhead at the end of FS Road 13. Set out following snowmobile tracks and followed them all the way up to our camp site nearthe top of the railroad grade. We camped at about 6000'. There was significant fresh snow the entire way. Snow fell off and on through the day... perfect weather to get a bad sun burn! Planned to set out on Sunday morning about 4am for the summit but it was still snowing and blowing. Rechecked weather at 7am and found that the snow had stopped and the sky seemed to show signs of clearing off. Headed out from camp at 8am breaking trail through 12-18"" of fresh snow. Made it to about 8300' in about three and a half hours of pretty tough travel through the deep snow. Time was not on our side and weather was returning. We descended back into the clouds and heavy snow was quick to follow. We were still able to follow our tracks back to camp. Visibility on the way down was less than 75'. From camp back to the car, the post-holing was pretty bad. Next time, there's always next time.