Dirtyface Peak

Dirtyface Peak, Dirtyface Benchmark, Dirtyface Lookout, and Peak 5860

On Dirtyface

April 12, 2026

Eric Gilbertson

7 miles hiking, 16 miles snowmobiling

I stayed at John’s awesome cabin Saturday night, then Sunday morning drove to nearby Pole Ridge road, where the north facing aspects still held some snow. My goal was to get perhaps one last snowmobile ride in for the season and hike a nearby peak. I parked at snowline at 2400ft a bit after sunrise and sledded up 8 miles. The roads were icy with some short gravel sections and some blowdowns, but I made it to the trailhead at 4200ft. This is not the standard hiking start, but is about the highest possible to snowmobile up on roads.

The route

I then bushwhacked up to the NE ridge of the Dirtyface Lookout, then continued traversing all the way to Dirtyface Peak. There was some fun scrambling near the very top. Interestingly, the summit register had a party from the previous weekend (TJ Zimmerman), but the next sign in was from June 2025. I thought the peak was more popular than that, but perhaps the Dirtyface Lookout is the popular peak since it has a trail up it, while the taller Dirtyface Peak is trail-less and less popular.

Sledding out

On the way back I made side trips to tag Dirtyface Benchmark and Peak 5860, then climbed up the lookout and descended back to the sled. On the way out I encountered a truck stuck in the snow. The skiers had taken an alternate melted-out road up, but got stuck when it changed to a snowy road. I sledded back to my truck, then drove up and spent an hour helping dig out and tow out the stuck truck, before heading home.

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