Shelokum, South Mirror Image, Wolftit Peak Surveys

Shelokum, South Mirror Image, Wolftit Peak Surveys

May 24-25, 2025

Eric and Matthew

Results (NAVD88 vertical datum):

Shelokum 8074.6 ft +/- 0.1ft
South Mirror Image 8076.6 ft +/- 0.1ft
Wolftit Peak 7989.9 ft +/- 0.1ft, Prominence 400.2ft +/-0.2ft

Matthew flew up from California for the long weekend and we decided to settle a few controversies on the WA Top 200 list with some surveys. Shelokum and South Mirror Image were tied for elevation based on Lidar data from 2022, and whichever one is higher is a Top 200 peak while the other is just a sub peak. Wolftit Peak was in a three-way tie for number 200 on the list and is also within the error bounds of having enough prominence to even count as a separate peak. We decided to take my Timble DA2 up each peak to get elevations to the nearest 0.1ft, and also measure the key col for Wolftit to see if it has enough prominence to qualify.

I’d previously climbed Shelokum from the Garder Meadows side, coincidentally also on May 24, but in 2020 and I didn’t survey it then. I hadn’t climbed the other two peaks yet. We decided to come in from the Cedar Creek side to avoid crowds, and do the trip as an overnight to give us time for all the surveys (one hour per survey). Also, I had read that the trail had been freshly cleared of blowdowns.

Friday evening we drove up to the Cedar Creek trailhead and slept in the truck. Saturday we hiked up the trail and made good time to the south fork confluence. There was a bit of patchy snow near mile 4, but then dry to the confluence. We ditched our overnight gear at an excellent campsite, then crossed the creek. We bushwhacked up the west slope directly to the summit of South Mirror Image.

I set up the DA2 with the flexible-leg tripod that nicely hugged the sharp summit rock. I took Abney level measurements over to Shelokum, but at that distance (1100ft horizontal), my 10 arcminute resolution could only measure a difference of 4ft or more. I measured it within the resolution, so we would have to rely on the DA2 to settle the controversy.

After an hour we descended a few hundred feet down the west face to get below some cliffs, then traversed snow and rock slopes. Eventually we reached a gully we were able to scramble up to get on the summit of Shelokum. The top was a pedestal rock that would have been very tough for Lidar measurements to hit, so I expected they would be off by at least a foot. I mounted the unit and took a measurement for another hour as we admired the view. There is still a lot of snow on north faces, but low-elevation snow is mostly melted.

To descend we dropped down the gully, boot-skied some snow at the bottom, then bushwhacked back to camp. We had a nice campfire in an existing fire ring and soon went to bed.

Sunday we started up shortly after sunrise and continued south along the trail until hitting continuous snow around 5600ft. Then we bushwhacked in a long traverse below a cliffband to our south. We eventually hit open snow slops, which we traversed around to Lamont Lake. It was still mostly frozen. We went east around the lake, then put on our snowshoes and continued to the north face of Wolftit. Interestingly, there were faint boot prints coming down the face from some days earlier.

We cramponed up to the west col, then scrambled to the summit. Surprisingly, the false summit to the west had literally several hundred thousand ladybugs on top. I’ve seen them congregate on summits before, but never to that extent. The other two peaks the previous day had no lady bugs. We set up the DA2 for an hour, then scrambled back to the col. There we took another hour measuarment and melted some snow on rocks for some extra water.

By 1:30pm we were finished and plunge stepped back down the face. We then snowshoed and bushwhacked out to camp, then hiked out by 7pm.

After processing the results I found South Mirror Image is 2.0ft higher than Shelokum, so South Mirror Image is the Top 200 peak and Shelokum is a sub-peak. Interestingly, Lidar measurements undermeasured each peak by about 2ft. This was likely because the summits were sharp rocks and Lidar only takes measurements every 3-6ft horizontal spacing, so it missed the true summits.

Wolftit Peak was 0.8ft shorter than the Lidar measurement, which just shows that Lidar is prone to errors even if it hits the summit. The prominence was 400.2ft +/-0.2ft, so Wolftit Peak just barely meets the 400ft threshold to qualify as a separate peak. I have one more peak to survey in the three-way tie, and that will then determine if Wolftit is on the Top 200 list or not.

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