Home > Trip Reports > Jan 24-25 Merrit Lake

Jan 24-25 Merrit Lake

1/15/10
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Posted by trees4me on 1/25/10 2:28am
Left Seattle at noon on saturday... a little behind schedule.  Somehow made it to the lake at dusk just in time to pull out headlamps!  The road was snowed in all the way to the highway, but we managed to plow/shovel our way into a parking spot.

Saturday night was clear and beautiful with lots of stars and a bright moon.  We were optimistic for Sunday and planned to climb Mastiff and maybe Howard too. 

Woke up about 100' under the cloud deck, and could just see across the lake.  Had a leisurely climb up to about 6200' on the Mastiff Ridge, where we gave up in the whiteout and turned around.  The trees above Merrit Lake provided great skiing with 6" of very light fluff on top.    On the way down we were able to skip the trail and ski all the way down to the Forest Road, and then to the car.  Should've left earlier on Saturday...story of my life ;)
Nice -- how many folks did you have in your group?  Where's Merritt Lake?  Don't think I've heard of it...

Nason ridge Marcus!

We had talked about doing the same thing thursday morning. Then I noticed you beat your way into teh merrit lake tr road on the way to leavenworth yesterday morning.

Where you climbing mastiff's east ridge, or the south ridge in between howard and mastiff?

Thanks for the report.

Ahhh!  No wonder it sounded familiar.  Maybe we can get up there after the MTR that Sunday.  I'd love to explore that area more.

I'd be game for touring any where in the general vicinity on that Sunday. There are some good options that we can pour over once the time gets near. Getting to the eastern side of nason ridge from camp would be a haul though.

Yeah, Nason Ridge east of Stevens Pass. 

Here's a map:
clicky clicky

It was just me and Emily.  We made it from US2 to the lake in about 3 hours with our overnight packs, so some of you people in better condition could easily crush Mastiff and/or Howard as a day trip.  The slopes above Merrit Lake provided really fun skiing in the trees with fun cliffs in places.

This was really more of an excuse to go camping AND skiing than a trip for turns, but we ended up with a few thousand feet of good skiing along the way.

Al, just curious where are you planning on camping next weekend?

Nice, thanks for the link.  Lots of good looking stuff up there.

The camping is actually for a Mountain Travel & Rescue course that John (why did I call you Scott -- I'm having a day) and I will be helping teach later in March, for the BC ski patrol that we're on.  It's usually in the Smithbrook area, so Mastiff would indeed be a haul from there in the afternoon.

Well that'd be a good break-in test for the group!  ~8-mile ridge traverse from Rainy Pass...

There's a lot of good stuff in that area, I'm sure you'll find something fun closer to Rainy Pass.

"Al, just curious where are you planning on camping next weekend?"


This coming weekend, maybe somewhere 'enchanting'... Not sure yet. I have a couple leads, but at the very least I hope to camp at 8 mile.

Ok, I peeked on your map. Was the ridge pretty wind worked with cornices and stuff? I heard that route can be a bit tough if you don't enjoy ridge line exposure.


Funny Marcus,

I go by either. You must have heard someone else call me Scott. Generally John is my formal name, but it gets confussing when my worlds overlap.

Okay, good -- I thought I was losing my mind.  I'm going to call you Scon.

cappy, that should be great if the weather works out this week.  Talked with some guys that went up there a week ago (to C-Lk) and had the place all to themselves...  when does that happen?!


The ridge was pretty wind swept once we were getting above treeline (~6000').  No cornices, the winds didn't seem to be able to make up there mind, so there was a distinct peak along much of the ridge top.

We couldn't see more than 50', so we gave up above treeline.  I would suspect that the ridge was pretty windswept higher.  There were some very steep lines to the NE leading to Lost lake, but I never felt exposed...  maybe higher up.

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trees4me
2010-01-25 10:28:06