The Barrier (Stevens Pass)

Trip Report

Carla and I parked in the upper Stevens Pass parking lot and headed up the groomed path to the Mountaineers lodge. From the lodge we went cross country ESE to the northernmost of the Grace Lakes. On the way we passed over a dozen snow caves, a Boy Scout troupe had a field trip over the weekend.

We worked our way across moderate terrain to the little ridgelet just south of Summit Lake. We ascended that ridgelet, then gained the north ridge of The Barrier by ascending a steep, treed snow slope. We followed the ridge a couple hundred vertical feet up to the top of The Barrier. The summit was treed but had views through the trees to the east.

Travel Times

• 1 hour 44 minutes driving there (I-5/520/I-405/522/Hwy2) from Capitol Hill to Stevens Pass parking lot
• 1 hour 55 minutes ascending from Stevens Pass parking lot (4,100') to The Barrier
• 1 hour 20 minutes descending from The Barrier (5,215') to Stevens Pass parking lot
• 2 hours 3 minutes driving back (Hwy2/522/I-405/520/I-5) from Stevens Pass parking lot to Capitol Hill

Visited

• Highway 2 Corridor
• King County
• Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest
• Stevens Pass USGS quad
• The Barrier
• Washington State