White and black dog

God jul from Stevens Pass

Since I didn’t have too much to do at work last week and the weather forecast called for sun, I decided to take Wednesday off and take Jasper on another peakbagging trip. Our goal: Tye Peak. We had been up its neighbor to the south, Sky Mountain, earlier this year but had afternoon obligations so we were forced to depart early. I checked my email before I left the house and saw that our friends Ingunn and JK would be headed up to Skyline Lake later in the morning. I thought it would be nice to run into them back at the lake and Jasper was excited by the prospect of more delicious gingerbones.

The drive to Stevens Pass went well and we left the frigid north parking lot and quickly booted (and pawed) our way to Skyline Lake. The path was so well travelled that I did not need the snowshoes.  The skies were mostly sunny as we started hiking, but apparently this news had not filtered down to Skyline Lake itself, as the lake and immediate surrounding areas were blanketed by a layer of fog. Undaunted, Jasper and I continued onward and upward past the lake to the saddle below the rock garden at Heather Ridge. The old snowshoe tracks that I had been following ended there, so I stopped to put on my snowshoes before dropping down the backside. Jasper had left his snowshoes at home, so he agreed to follow behind me if the going got too deep. 

The clouds parted just enough for me to get a glimpse of Tye Peak and I aimed for the saddle between it and Sky Mountain. There were a few inches of new snow over a crust. We wove our way through trees and rocks and ultimately to the saddle between the two peaks. From here it was a quick walk (well, not that quick) along the ridge to the summit of Tye Peak. It was still pretty cloudy, but we could see a little bit to the south. Just as I asked Jasper if we should call mom, I heard my phone buzzing in my pack. It was Dani calling to check on us. Good thing I switched to Verizon as AT&T has yet to provide decent coverage at Stevens Pass. We talked for a few minutes before she had to get back to work. Jasper waited patiently while I took a few photos. We descended back down the ridge to the saddle, but instead of retracing our steps I decided to traverse around the west side of Sky Mountain before returning to Skyline Lake.

A couple minutes of steep sidehilling led us to a gently sloped, snow covered talus field. The fog got a little thicker through here, and it was tough to see all the little bumps in the snow with the flat light. Fortunately there were enough trees to help with orienting myself, and soon we found ourselves cresting the southern ridge of Sky Mountain. I looked at Jasper and asked if he minded a repeat summit. His head cocked to one side as he listened to me. I took that to mean, “Let’s do it dad!” A couple minutes later we were on the summit of Sky Mountain, enjoying more cloudy views. I got my thermos out and enjoyed some vegetable soup.  Jasper tried to sneak some soup but my quick action saved the soup from certain demise. He ended up surviving on several dog treats that I had brought along.

 We followed our tracks back to the end of the ridge, and turned east for a short ways before finding the top of the gully that would lead us back into the basin we had traversed earlier in the day. The clouds had started to dissipate, and we could see our tracks from the morning, only 300 feet below us. We hugged the trees and made a quick descent back to our tracks, then followed them back to the saddle above Skyline Lake. The views were more widespread than earlier, and I decided to enjoy the rest of my soup at the rock garden just below the highpoint of Heather Ridge (Skyline Ridge). Mt. Stuart, Mt. Daniel and Mt. Hinman were visible as I sat and finished off the soup.

With an empty thermos but a full tummy, we got up and headed back to the lake. From above I saw a couple people at the lake, and thought I recognized a blue jacket on one of them. A couple minutes later Jasper confirmed that we had found Ingunn and JK on their way up to the rock garden. We chatted for a few minutes and they convinced me to head back up with them. It was only a couple hundred vertical feet above the lake so I decided to turn around with them. Besides, the skies were clearing and their might be decent views of something. Sadly for Jasper they had left their doggies Bobby and Wellie at home. Even more tragic for Jasper was the absence of gingerbones for him to savor. (Ok, for those of you who know Jasper, savor is not in his vocabulary).

They enjoyed their thermos of soup and we all enjoyed the increasing views. Soon we were a bit cold so we decided to head back down. JK was trying out his new randonee ski gear, so Ingunn, Jasper and I started down first but JK quickly caught up to us. Ingunn and I kept stopping on the way down to take photographs but eventually we all made it back to the parking lot and our respective vehicles and said our goodbyes. I lost the game of rock, paper, scissors with Jasper and was forced to drive home while he slept in the back. It was another fine day in the mountains.

 god jul

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