May 13-14, 2006, Mt. Hinman via MidFork Snoqualmie

David and I got a view from Big Snow Mountain ten days prior of the route up Mt. Hinman via the Middle Fork Snoqualmie and it looked good, so we decided to try it as a day-and-a-half trip. We were able to drive to within a few minutes walk of the trailhead after the adventurous drive up the Middle Fork road. We both took waxless skis and joke tele boots (leather), David having discovered a pair at his house that a former roommate had abandoned. My boots worked fine, but David's turned out to be no laughing matter. About four and a half miles in, right under Iron Cap Peak, the sole of one boot peeled away from the upper. David ended up hiking back to the car that evening, spending the night there, then hiking back to meet me at my camp the next morning, wearing his new pair of Excursions which he had fortunately brought in the car. So in the end, David ended up doing Mt. Hinman as a day trip, about 18 miles, after a 9 mile warm up hike the afternoon before! David is the only person with whom I have skied who could have done this (and I know I could not have done it).

We left the car at 2:30 PM on Saturday and the first few miles of trail were largely melted out, but with 3-4 foot deep areas in dense shade; the trail was pretty easy to follow, and the hiking was generally good. At about 3700 feet where the trail starts under the avalanche slopes of Iron Cap Mountain we started skiing, and about a mile later David's boot failed. I quickly boiled some water and had dinner so that David could take the stove back with him, then I skied up to a meadowed area near 4100 feet to make camp. A very nice spot out of the valley breeze with running water close by, great sunset views of Bears Breast Mountain and Summit Chief Mountain, and about 6 feet of snowpack. The surface snow started refreezing by 7 PM but it did not seem that the freeze would be especially deep at this elevation.

David hit the trail at 6 AM the next morning and found me lounging in camp getting hungry at 8:30. I had a quick breakfast and then we started skiing toward Williams Lake under the brilliant blue sky. The snow was already softening so the fishscales generally gripped well. We took a ramp to the east of Williams Lake up to Chain Lakes. This ramp was not a place to hang out, with glide cracked snowpack and big cornices hanging above on the west face of Bears Breast Mountain. Near Williams Lake approaching the ramp:



From Chain Lakes we skied to the divide overlooking La Bohn Lakes, then added skins for the climb up onto Mt. Hinman. This northwest facing snow was very firm and my skinny skins couldn't do the job, so I had to boot for a little while. Above 6000 feet the snowpack was solidly frozen underneath and starting to soften nicely where getting sun. On the long summit ridge of Mt. Hinman there were a few areas of newer snow, but mostly the snow was nicely consolidated. We noticed some up ski tracks here but no evidence of returning turns - anybody here own those tracks? Looking at the summit ridge:



We reached the summit at about 1:30 and hung out for an hour enjoying the amazing views and pleasant temperatures. We both installed cables on our 3-pin bindings before starting down. Overall this route has a lot of skiing but not a lot of turns, but we got some stretches of nice corn turns going back down to the La Bohn Lakes divide. Summit Chief Mountain, Chimney Rock, and Overcoat Peak from the divide:



After that we pretty much used our vertical to glide back to Williams Lake. The snow had warmed to either mush or breakable crust over mush, and we wanted to spend as little time as possible below the snowpack hanging up on Bears Breast Mountain. Back at my camp we snacked and shared a beer (Youngs Double Chocolate Stout - highly recommended!), then headed out. We skied more of the way out than we had on the way in, doing a couple of short carries to connect, then just hiked when the stretches of snow weren't worth the skis on/off hassle.

The Middle Fork Snoqualmie road is supposed to become permanently gated at Dingford Creek this fall, which will add something like 5-6 miles to the trailhead, so this trip will soon become a very long one indeed (though I'm sure David will still be able to do it as a day trip!). On the way out it took us 60 minutes to drive the first 12 miles (to Taylor River), and then 30 minutes to drive the final 12 miles (to North Bend). The road was actually in reasonable shape between Taylor River and Dingford Creek, but beyond has clearly been left to weather naturally and I don't think I'd try it in a normal clearance car.