Went to Cave Ridge for some ski touring with Patrick. He was kind enough to pick me up at my place, and we met up around 7 a.m. The weirdest thing happened right off the bat, I kept trying to text him my address, but for some reason my address just wouldn’t go through as a single message to his Android phone. No idea why. Eventually we sorted it out and hit the road.
We drove straight out to Snoqualmie Pass and were pleasantly surprised by how open the parking situation was around 8:30. Not empty, but definitely not crowded. It turned out that parking on the opposite side of the road from Snoqualmie only required a Discovery Pass, which was a nice bonus.
From there, we walked under the overpass to the horse trailhead for the PCT and started up the Commonwealth Trail. We eventually veered off to head up behind Guye Peak. I started climbing around Guye, trying to follow the lowest-angle terrain possible, hugging the contour where I could, but still ended up boot packing a good portion of it.
We reached the shoulder, or little col, between Cave Ridge and Guye Peak, and then continued ascending toward the summit of Cave Ridge, passing what the map claimed was a “cave.” I didn’t see a cave at all. If there was one, it was very small or well hidden. Either way, no obvious cave. We topped out on Cave Ridge around 12:30, so about 3.5 hours to gain roughly 2,000 feet.
From the summit, we headed toward the drainage coming off Lundin Peak. We went right over the drainage, and there were some short cliff sections we had to carefully downclimb. It might ski later in the season, but for now we were definitely scrambling over rocks to get down safely.
Once we reached Commonwealth Basin, things mellowed out a lot. It was pretty flat, no real skinning required, but also not great skiing. Mostly walking on skis with occasional short slides. It probably took us another 3.5 hours to get out. The Commonwealth Trail wasn’t really a trail yet, so we kept crossing it, losing it, and finding it again. It finally became more defined once we got under Kendall Trees, where it was well tracked.
We were able to ski a bit more from there, but near the end I tried to blast through a small sapling, which twisted me around and tweaked my knee. As I write this, I’m laid up on the couch nursing it and hoping it’s nothing serious.
The final stretch of the PCT was actually pretty fun, fast skiing despite lots of early-season vegetation poking through. The sun was setting as we came through the last part of the trail, and by the time we got back to the car it was fully dark. Perfect timing.
All in all, a great day exploring that part of the Commonwealth Basin. I’d definitely like to get back out there and try for Lundin Peak next time.
We drove straight out to Snoqualmie Pass and were pleasantly surprised by how open the parking situation was around 8:30. Not empty, but definitely not crowded. It turned out that parking on the opposite side of the road from Snoqualmie only required a Discovery Pass, which was a nice bonus.
From there, we walked under the overpass to the horse trailhead for the PCT and started up the Commonwealth Trail. We eventually veered off to head up behind Guye Peak. I started climbing around Guye, trying to follow the lowest-angle terrain possible, hugging the contour where I could, but still ended up boot packing a good portion of it.
We reached the shoulder, or little col, between Cave Ridge and Guye Peak, and then continued ascending toward the summit of Cave Ridge, passing what the map claimed was a “cave.” I didn’t see a cave at all. If there was one, it was very small or well hidden. Either way, no obvious cave. We topped out on Cave Ridge around 12:30, so about 3.5 hours to gain roughly 2,000 feet.
From the summit, we headed toward the drainage coming off Lundin Peak. We went right over the drainage, and there were some short cliff sections we had to carefully downclimb. It might ski later in the season, but for now we were definitely scrambling over rocks to get down safely.
Once we reached Commonwealth Basin, things mellowed out a lot. It was pretty flat, no real skinning required, but also not great skiing. Mostly walking on skis with occasional short slides. It probably took us another 3.5 hours to get out. The Commonwealth Trail wasn’t really a trail yet, so we kept crossing it, losing it, and finding it again. It finally became more defined once we got under Kendall Trees, where it was well tracked.
We were able to ski a bit more from there, but near the end I tried to blast through a small sapling, which twisted me around and tweaked my knee. As I write this, I’m laid up on the couch nursing it and hoping it’s nothing serious.
The final stretch of the PCT was actually pretty fun, fast skiing despite lots of early-season vegetation poking through. The sun was setting as we came through the last part of the trail, and by the time we got back to the car it was fully dark. Perfect timing.
All in all, a great day exploring that part of the Commonwealth Basin. I’d definitely like to get back out there and try for Lundin Peak next time.
Leave a Reply