Sayah Peak First Ascent

Sayah Peak (8,325ft), First Ascent

Nov 1, 2026

57 miles (39 hiking 18 biking), 11pm – 8pm

Eric Gilbertson

In 2023 when I started trying to determine a more accurate list of the 100 highest peaks in Washington I identified a few edge-case peaks based on the USGS quad contours. These were peaks that had just below the required 400ft of prominence or just below the required elevation. I’d found based on my ground surveys with GNSS equipment that the quads could sometimes be in error by one or two contours at passes and summits, so prominence could be off by 40ft or more. Sayah Peak, in the Glacier Peak Wilderness northwest of Fortress Mountain, had 365ft of prominence based on the quads and was over 8300ft in elevation, and this put it within error bounds of being a Top 100 peak.

In 2023 I made plans to carry my theodolite up to the peak and measure the prominence, but the plans fell through and I didn’t make it. I made more plans in 2024, but by then LiDAR data had been published for the area, and this showed the peak had 332ft of prominence. So the quads had indeed been significantly in error, but in the wrong direction for the peak to qualify. LiDAR data is usually accurate to within a few feet in this type of terrain, so the peak definitely did not qualify for the WA Top 100 list. I still wanted to climb it, though.

Interestingly, I could not locate any information about the peak in guidebooks or online, and mountaineering historians said they were unaware of previous ascents. So it appeared to be unclimbed and unnamed. In 2026 I made plans again to go climb it. But by the time I got back from summer travels the area was closed due to forest fires. The peak was on the edge of both the Miners Creek fire closure area and the Little Giant fire closure area. Moreover, the three closest road approaches to trailheads were all closed due to washouts from Dec 2025 – Chiwawa River Road, Suiattle River Road, and Railroad Creek Road.

By late October the Miners Creek fire restrictions had been lifted and the trails nearby were listed as open according to the Baker National Forest Trail Conditions website (https://www.fs.usda.gov/r06/mbs/conditions) . Also, according to that site, crews had just completed a bridge across the washout at MP 4 on Suiattle River Road and it was open to vehicles to MP 14, then open to non-motorized use beyond that. So it appeared Sayah Peak was legally accessible from the west.

This would be a long approach, though, with 9 miles on road to the trailhead then 19.5 miles on trail and off-trail above treeline to the summit. And there were reports of huge washouts on the lower Suiattle River Trail that made it impassable. Also, there was a lot of fresh snow above 3000ft which would make travel slow. I figured conditions would only get more challenging later in the year as more snow fell, so I decided to go for it. I just had one day available, so went for a big day trip.

Saturday evening I drove to Suiattle River Road and crossed the nice new one-lane bridge over the huge washout. I made it to MP 14 and parked in front of a few temporary gates near another big washout. By 11pm I got started. I pushed my bike through the washout of boulders and logs across the road, then continued biking up the road in the dark. There were two huge washouts where the road had fallen in the river nearby and was totally gone. For these, there have been 4×4 trails cut through the woods and I biked through these.

By 12:30am I reached the end of the road at the Suiattle River Trail trailhead and I locked my bike in the woods. It was pretty unlikely any bike thieves would make it up there, but I’ve had a mountain bike stolen from a trailhead like this before when I just hid it in the woods, so now I always lock it up. There was a trailhead register and a few entries were ominous. One entry from May said the person had made it 3 miles up the trail and then turned around at a sketchy washout. Another entry from September said two hikers had hiked out from the PCT and just barely got through a few washout sections. They strongly advised against attempting the trail. That was the last entry.

I decided to give it a shot. Worst case I figured I could do a big bushwhack around the washouts, or just bail. The trail had a lot of blowdowns but was otherwise in good shape for the first 3 miles. Then I hit a small washout, but there was a good set of logs across it and I though it was no problem. By mile 5.5 I met a bigger washout. This required delicately scrambling down wet rocks and across wet slabs, then scrambling up dity slabs back to the trail. I could see how some people wouldn’t like it, but it wasn’t that dangerous or tricky.

That was the last washout. Within another mile I reached the PCT and the trail conditions improved as expected. Interestingly, when I looked at my watch at one point it was 1:45am, then half an hour later it was 1:15am. That didn’t seem to make sense, but then I remembered the time change to standard time happened at 2am and my watch had that programmed in.

I made fast progress until I passed a few switchbacks and rounded onto a north aspect above 3600ft. There snow started and I soon put my snowshoes on. Around 5am I got tired enough that I decided to take a short nap. I dozed off briefly, but within 5 minutes I woke up shivering, so I decided to just keep going. The short nap did help though.

Sunrise hit around Buck Creek and by then I was feeling strong again. I turned up the Buck Creek trail and then encountered a lot of blowdowns. I don’t think that trail has seen maintenance for a while. I had to crawl under quite a few and got wet with the snow. Higher up the conditions improved.

At 5700ft I took a shortcut and broke trail through deep snow directly up a steep north face to sheep camp. From there I ascended up to the saddle near point 7288, passing a lot of fresh animal tracks on the way. I think they were from a bobcat. I continued to the south face of Sayah, and encountered two steep snow gullies. Based on LiDAR data it looked like the right gully went directly to the summit, so I headed for that one.

At the base it got too steep for snowshoes, so I strapped those to my pack and put on crampons. The gully was tricky because some sections were scrambling on rock, but other sections were waist-deep snow. I probably should have brought my ascent plates, but I hadn’t thought the snow would be deep enough. After some wallowing and scrambling I reached the summit at 11:30am. There were no cairns or summit registers or signs of previous human presence.

The views were great of Glacier Peak to the West and Fortress Mountain to the SE. The NE face of Sayah was a huge cliff dropping steeply down to Miners Creek. I felt pretty remote being 28.5 miles in from the nearest driveable road. But that meant I had 28.5 miles left to get out. I hung out for 15 minutes admiring the view, then started back down. I plunge stepped down the gully, then at the base put the snowshoes back on and headed down. On the way one snowshoe strap broke, but I was able to fix it with a ski strap.

I got back to Sheep Camp, then plunge stepped down the north face back to the trail. I was back to the PCT by 2pm and the snow had melted a bit since the morning. Interestingly, there were fresh coyote tracks going back down the trail. I soon made it to the edge of snowline and ditched the snow shoes. I then jogged out as much as I could, which was a little awkward with the big pack. By 5pm I reached the Suiattle River Trail turnoff at sunset and then my pace slowed a bit due to the blowdowns and the washout. But I reached the trailhead a few hours later, then biked back to my truck by 8pm for a 22hr push.

Note: Sayah means “remote” in Chinook jargon.

 

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