NWOutdoorGrrl

Alta Mountain scramble

On my last day of freedom (yesterday) before the law school grind started, Susan and I decided to scramble Alta Mountain. Both of us had climbed Hibox, Alta’s sister peak, but never Alta. We’d also never been to Rachael Lake, which is on the way to Alta. (This is practically a crime considering how long both of us have lived in the area.) Thinking we’d get a two-fer, it was settled.

We met at Mercer Island at 7:15 a.m. - a divinely reasonable hour for climbing - and headed to Snoqualmie Pass. Our hike started out in the forest on a gentle trail. About 20 minutes in, we came across a retreat. The meditation spot next to the first of many waterfalls we’d see looked delightful.

Not too much later, we got to what people call “the headwall” - the final steep mile and a half of trail leading to Rachael Lake. The truly great thing about this trail are the wonderful waterfalls along the way. Even if you don’t make it to the lake, you’ll get plenty of bang for your hiking buck.

Rachael Lake was as beautiful as everyone says it is. There are plenty of larches surrounding the lake, so a return trip in October might be in order.

Our destination was beyond the lake, so we continued climbing.

High above the lake, we got a much nicer view and discovered that it had a big part and a little part. As we gained altitude, though, the bugs started getting thicker and more aggressive…

Despite being past wildflower prime, we were rewarded with plenty of purple lupine and heather to keep us happy.

If you do this trip in the future, take note...This is the trail we took. It is the wrong trail. We wanted to be on the ridge on the left side of the picture. We missed the turn-off though and ended up near Lila Lakes, which are pretty but not on route.

Not really knowing that we were off route, we ended up at the “Alta Armpit.” (Thanks Kayla for the name.) It is a notch above Lila Lakes, between Rampart Ridge and an unnamed peak to the west. Susan and I must have spent an hour or two trying to figure a way up this unnamed peak, thinking we were looking at Alta. Eventually we chickened out, worried that without a rope, we’d be in a pickle getting down.

In the mean time, a member of Susan’s SIG group, Kayla, and her family joined us at the Armpit. They were out for a day hike, exploring from their basecamp at Rachael Lake. After prolonged head-scratching and map-studying we determined that the ridge to our left actually was where we wanted to be. One of Kayla’s eagle-eyed children also told us that the rock we could see at the end of the ridge was a man-made structure.

Feeling adventurous, we decided that the fastest and best way to the ridge was up a ramp from the Armpit (rather than walking back to find the described route in the book). After 15-minutes of mountain goat scrambling and another 15-minutes or so of ridge walking we made the summit of Alta. To our delight, there was another woman on the summit, who had abandoned her male companion earlier for a trip up the mountain. We snapped a bunch of summit shots, including some yoga poses way up high, and then made our way down the “real” route. Nick would have been proud, because “if it’s not a loop, it’s poop!”