International Peace Climb

The avalanche forecast for Saturday was unusually high at higher elevations, so I canceled the Unicorn Peak climb I was scheduled to lead for The Mountaineers. John, Maris, Adam, and I set out for a more modest summit instead - Mount Washington just off of Exit 38. (We dubbed it the International Peace Climb, because Maris hails from Estonia, and Adam calls Poland his native country.)

It’s a somewhat obscure peak. A check of Ron Judd and Dan Nelson’s Pacific Northwest Hiking (aka The Hiker’s Bible) doesn’t even mention it. The Seattle P-I’s Take a Hike listings don’t have directions either. It’s been referenced a tantalizing number of times on hiker bulletin boards and blogs though, so I thought it was time to check it out.

The trail started off easy enough. After a quick jaunt on the Iron Horse trail, we were headed up up up! Adam set a blazing pace and we were 1400’ above the cars at Owl Spot in no time.

The view from here was hard to capture, so you’ll just have to go see yourself

Snow greeted us around 3000’ making travel a lot more fun. We continued along the abandoned road bed until it appeared that a shortcut was in order.

Already we could tell that this was a way better hike than Mt. Si or McClellan Butte. The views of the Snoqualmie Valley were fantastic.

Up up up the snow. Adam in the lead, kicking steps. The rest of us content to follow!

It was so warm on the summit that we spent a full hour up there soaking up the rays. The view of Mount Rainier was pretty spectacular too, until clouds covered it up. Adam entertained us with a snowy version of Jenga.

We also made a point of posing in our matching Mont Bell windshirts. (I think Adam was jealous.)

Finally, here’s a topo map of the route we took (yellow = up, purple = down). To get there, take Exit 38 off of I-90 and park at the Olallie State Park TH. Walk up to the Iron Horse Trail from the parking lot and continue west for about 400 yards. Look for an unmarked trail leading into the woods. There are two forks. Follow the signs and you’ll be fine.

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