September 9th, 2005 with Pat Frye
Meet Pat at 5:00 a.m. at the I-90 / Hwy. 18 entrance and then followed him to a North Bend Park and Ride. We drove together to Cle Elum and then up the North Fork of the Teanaway River Road as the sun started to rise. We came around a curve and had to stop briefly for a herd of cattle who were standing in the road. After about 30 minutes on this gravel road, we made it to the trail head.
Did some last minute packing and changed shoes, then started up the trail. Was very nice to hike with Pat again - brought forth a lot of memories about past climbs - many of which I had forgotten. It had just started drizzling so I had my poncho on and did not take any photos until there was a brief break on the summit.
Pat had an altimeter so this was a welcome addition - easy to calculate your elevation gain and how far you still needed to climb to the summit. I think the trail up was about 3 to 3.5 miles and the elevation gain was about 3,500 feet. I'll confirm this with Pat.
Once we made it to the pass, the drizzle (which had changed to light rain) turned into snow and the wind had dramatically increased to an estimated 25 miles per hour and was coming from the northwest. Our beautiful fall climb had turned to winter conditions with horizontal, wind-blown snow. The temperature was 41 degrees but the wind chill was substantially less.
Pat's "Ira Spring Guide" said to descend from the pass while it looked like an easy ridge walk to the summit. We took the ridge walk and before we knew it, we made the summit. Iron Peak, 6510', is just above the tree line but would offer some great views of surronding peaks on a clear day. Unfortunately, the clouds were low and this blocked most if not all of our views. And the horizontal snow was still blowing and had started to stick to our packs and clothes. Conditions were not ideal.
We at some food, tried to stay warm, and spoke to Mother Nature about a little blue sky. She must have been listening, because we got exactly that - a little blue sky. I got my camera out and we took a few pictures just to document our accomplishment and also the few low vistas that were now visible. Mt. Stuart, 9,415', reportedly the single greatest exposed mass of granite in the United States, was still in the clouds. For one brief moment, we had a glimpse of the lower flanks with the crevaces coated with fresh snow, but we never did see the large summit massive.
Finally, after an hour or so on the summit, we were cold and wet. The wind was getting old and cut through any exposed areas, so we headed back down. Pat said he would come back up on a nicer day and we did see a few other challenges for future trips. Still have not forgotten my trip up Mt. Stuart and would do that again if my body were capable. Maybe next year!
