Lundin Peak

East Ridge

September 27, 2001

The stars were out as Michael and I traveled up the highway to Snoqualmie Pass. We were looking forward to another beautiful morning in the mountains. It was just getting light when we started hiking up the Pacific Crest Trail. It was chilly even while hiking. Fall was definitely in the air. We quickly came to the turn off to Red Mountain and made our way up the brushy trail.

Since Michael had a jacket he led the way through the brush and knocked most of the dew off the leaves. I recognized the trail from an earlier trip this year up Guye Peak. We were on snowshoes then and the memory made me glad that we now had bare trail under us. Another benefit of traveling at this time of year were all the blueberries and huckleberries. Yum!

Soon we were out of the brush and hiking under the canopy of a mature forest. Michael noted that the trail was in great shape for being "abandoned". We had seen these weathered "abandoned trail" signs where the trail met up with others. At one of these junctions we stopped and noticed a tent that was piched off a nearby trail. It seemed strange that someone would camp so close to the trailhead. Maybe they were camping with children or got a late start? Who knows, but they had it all to themselves and were probably sleeping in after a cold night.

A few minutes later we hiked up some short, steep, switchbacks and gained a ridge. The trail led to a basin where we could look up at Red Mountain on the right and Lundin to the left with a pretty lake tucked in between. There was a fork in the trail with one branch heading off right towards Red Mountain while the other headed straight ahead towards Lundin. We took the trail straight ahead which we were surprised to find ended at the edge of the lake. From where we stood it looked like we would need to scramble straight up on the other side of the lake to the ridge below the false summit of Lundin. But as we surveyed the area we spied a faint trail across a scree slope below Red Mountain that headed towards the ridge. Trails are a good thing, so we backtracked and took the trail to Red Mountain.

It wasn't long before we were crossing the scree field that we had seen from the lake. Man, trails are great! We were greeted by a blast of cold air as we gained the ridge between Red Mountain and Lundin Peak. We both agreed how great ridges are for gaining ground. The trail followed the ridge up to the "false summit" that we had seen from below. In a grove, out of the wind we put on extra layers and our harnesses. There was a light dusting of snow on the branches of the trees, so we knew that the chilliness we felt earlier in the morning wasn't our imagination.

We left our trekking poles there near the grove and continued up to the top of the false summit. The other side of the crag dropped off abruptly so we backed down and looked for other possibilities. After checking out all sides of the point, we chose the least steep side and started to scramble down. There were patches of ice where water run off had froze so we brought the rope out and I belayed Michael down from an anchor off a sprawling, stunted evergreen.

Michael relocated the trail and I rappelled down to where he was. Since there was a clear path along the rocks we coiled the rope. It was a somewhat exposed traverse under our false summit and we were greeted on the otherside with yet another false summit. Ah! The mountains are full of surprises and seldom give up their summits easily! We scrambled up this sub peak and found it's top to be fairly wide which allowed us to cruise over to yet another minor peak. We scrambled down to the right and traversed behind this peak to a flat area that was just above the large gully that met up with the east ridge of the summit. At last, we could see a straight route to the east ridge. We scrambled down a rocky step, across the gulley, and and up the other side to the below the obvious slab that marked the route. The rock became steeper here, so we flaked out the rope and tied in.

From below we could see three very large hangered bolts that protected the ridge. We had never seen such large hangers before. These were definitely made in some metal shop as they were about 4 by 7 inches with about a 20 degree bend in them across the short dimension. A large bolt ran through them and fastened them to the rock, but they were loose having pulled away from where they were once glued to the rock. There was a plaque near the first hanger that told how these bolts were placed in memory of a climbing instructor who was killed in a fall while protecting this route for students. I solemnly clipped the second hanger as I moved past with a fresh reminder of the seriousness of this sport that I love.

The climbing was not difficult and the exposed sections were short. I found a group of slings tied around large boulders and clipped into them as I scrambled on up to the summit. I set up an anchor around a rock horn and belayed Michael up. We signed the summit register and took some photos. While we were looking around we saw another memorial to a fallen climber. I took a picture of the plaque with the date, "September 28, 1952". It was almost 49 years to the day that the accident took place. I felt the joy of being there on the summit and thought of the climber who was also on this peak, at this time of year.

It was a beautiful fall day and we were treated to yet another wonderful view from a new Snoqualmie Pass summit. We took in the panorama, pointing out peaks that we knew and peaks that we hoped to know.