Date: 2007/11/02
Trip type: scramble/climb
Elevation gain: approx. 4,555 feet
Car-to-car time: 12 hours 25 minutes
USGS quads: Bandera, Chester Morse Lake
In area: Middle Fork Snoqualmie Drainage
The logging road on the east side of Zorro Ridge ends near Little Comrade. From the end of the road it is an open-forest traverse to Little Comrade. Avoid brush by staying high at the slide alder on the east side of Little Comrade.
On the way we climbed point 4,280'+, immediately south of Little Comrade. We scrambled from the gully to the south up 3rd class rock, traversed a ledge to the right, and followed a ridge up to the left to where it met two sections of class 5 rock with a ledge with a tree in between. I led this, the second section of class 5 felt like 5.9 (I may be over-rating it since I was in boots with a full pack on my back), and belayed from a rock horn above. After this was a short 4th class section. The rest of the route north to the summit was 3rd class and exposed at times. There was no evidence of previous visitors at the summit. I left a cairn.
After the slide alder on the east side of Little Comrade, we made an ascending traverse through a brief stand of doug fir; then up a mossy, rough slab; through another brief tree section; and down a dirt gully. From here there were couple upward possibilities. We explored the first gully, which had an ugly class 4 section (perhaps we could have bypassed it to the right?) and above it was a rocky basin/gully that I looked at and decided we didn't have time for. It would definitely be worth exploring the two other gullys further west, I didn't have time to see if they went anywhere. The third gully may require descending and traversing low to get into it.
References
- Book: 55 Hikes Around Snoqualmie Pass: Mountains to Sound Greenway
- Book: Middle Fork Guide: Seattle's closest mountains
- Washington Trails Association: Trip reports
Travel Times
Car-to-car time: 12 hours 25 minutes- 41 minutes driving there from Capitol Hill to Mailbox Peak trailhead
- 1 hour 47 minutes ascending (bike & hike) from Mailbox Peak trailhead to turn-off of Granite Creek Road-Trail
- 1 hour 52 minutes ascending from turn-off of Granite Creek Road-Trail to Zorro Ridge pass
- 2 hours 47 minutes traversing from Zorro Ridge pass to top of Little Comrade's sub-summit
- 2 hours 19 minutes traversing from top of Little Comrade's sub-summit to where we turned back on Little Comrade
- 1 hour 32 minutes traversing from where we turned back on Little Comrade to Zorro Ridge pass
- 1 hour 15 minutes descending from Zorro Ridge pass to turn-off of Granite Creek Road-Trail
- 53 minutes descending (bike & hike) from turn-off of Granite Creek Road-Trail to Mailbox Peak trailhead
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