Silver Peak loop from Windy Pass

Carlos and I parked on the side of a spur road off of road 9070. A vehicle with high-clearance could go to the end of road, but not my Subaru Impreza. We walked up the road to where it curls to the righ just before ending near ridge NW of Silver Peak. We went north into Silver Basin and soon scrambled up the side of the NW ridge. Once on the ridge we had sweeping views of the peaks to the north, starting with Mount Si in the west, then (to name a few) Bandera Mountain, Kaleetan Peak, Snoqualmie Mountain, Guye Peak, Mount Thompson, Red Mountain, Chikamin Peak, the Four Brothers, and Mount Stuart in the east. The ridge was a fun scramble with a bit of rock scrambling and a small amount of exposure at times. Sometimes we had to drop to the east or west side of the ridge to avoid gendarmes. A few hundred vertical feet before the summit we dropped over to the west side of the ridge (there were excellent views of Mount Rainier here) and stayed on that side until we reached the summit.

On our descent we took the bootpath south to the Silver Peak/Abiel Peak saddle, then followed the path east to the PCT.

Comments

This was an excellent trip, the route up the ridge is lovely.

On the way up we met one guy on the NW ridge who came from the Lake Annette trail. While we were on the summit another party of two came up via the bootpath that leads to the PCT.

References

• Book: Cascade Alpine Guide: Climbing and High Routes: Vol 1 - Columbia River to Stevens Pass

Maps

• Online map with route drawn on it: Silver Peak loop map
• Greentrails map: Snoqualmie Pass
• USGS quad: Lost Lake
• USGS quad: Snoqualmie Pass

Travel Times

• 2012/01/09: 2 hours 15 minutes ascending from where we parked the car to Silver Peak
• 1 hour 21 minutes descending from Silver Peak to intersection of the PCT and road 9070
• 8 minutes descending from intersection of the PCT and road 9070 to where we parked the car
• 57 minutes driving back from where we parked the car to intersection of I-90 and I-405
• 17 minutes driving back from intersection of I-90 and I-405 to Lower Queen Anne

Granite Mountain from Silver Peak

Abiel Peak and Mount Rainier from NW ridge of Silver Peak