Keechelus Ridge

Keechelus Ridge (5,151 ft)

Eric, David, Birkan, Julia

January 22, 2016

Keechelus Ridge is one of the few mountains near Seattle that you can count on to have a broken trail. This is because most of the route is on a popular groomed snowmobile trail. With snowy weather predicted, we thought this would be a good chance to get some mellow backcountry skiing in.

We started hiking up Sunday morning, with me towing my backpack and skis up in a sled, Birkan hiking up, and David and Julia skinning up in their backcountry skis. The road zig-zagged up the mountain, and we were passed occasionally by snowmobilers. By about 1pm we reached the end of the groomed trail at a big radio tower, and Birkan and I pushed a quarter mile farther along the ridge to tag the true summit.

On the way down Birkan made good use of the sled, while everyone else skied, for a fun decent back to the car.

© 2017, egilbert@alum.mit.edu. All rights reserved.

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