Trip type: scramble, backcountry ski
Elevation gain: approx. 3,675 feet (approx 1,120 meters)
Car-to-car time: 9 hours 1 minute
USGS Quad: Index
In Area: Highway 2 Corridor
Trip Report
Due to snow and my fear of getting stuck, Carla, Mark, and I parked on Road 62 about 1.5 miles from the trail. We hiked up the road to the NW ridge trail.
On the ridge the snow was often unconsolidated and deep, in unsheltered areas the wind was furious, and near the top my eyelashes started accumulating ice. Given the challenging conditions, we should have been more conservative about our turn-around time, but we pushed on all the way to the summit.
On the way down I skied three sections and snowshoed two sections. That's a lot of swapping between skis and snowshoes, but the skiing was great and it was worth lugging the skis up, especially when descending the road back to the car!
It was dark by the time we reached the car.
References
- Book: Climbing Washington's Mountains
- Book: Seattle Outdoors: Hiking & Cycling-Puget Sound and Cascades
- Washington Alpine Club: Mount Persis
- Eric's Base Camp: Mount Persis in winter
- Summitpost.org: Mount Persis
Travel Times
Car-to-car time: 9 hours 1 minuteAscending time: 6 hours 16 minutes
Descending time: 2 hours 45 minutes
- 6 hours 16 minutes ascending from parking spot (2,335') to summit of Mount Persis (6,010')
- 2 hours 18 minutes descending from summit of Mount Persis (6,010') to where trail meets road (3,225')
- 27 minutes descending from where trail meets road (3,225') to parking spot
Visited
Logan and Carla
Mark
Mark, Carla, and Logan
The meadow below the summit of Mount Persis
Carla watches Mark take a nap on the summit of Mount Persis