Cannon Mountain summit
Elain and I wanted to do some kind of alpine climb or scramble this weekend, but the strong warming trend on Sunday and recent snowfall on Thursday/Friday had us concerned about avalanche hazard. We decided to try climbing Cannon Mountain via the Northwest Ridge, and possibly attempt the North Couloir if the snow conditions permitted. Because it is a long approach to Cannon Mountain and the Eightmile Road is still snowed in 2.5 miles from the trailhead, we opted for a trailhead bivy. We arrived at the Bridge Creek Campground at 9:00 PM on Saturday, and drove up the dirt road toward the Stuart Lake Trailhead. About 1.5 miles up the road, we reached the snow line. We parked the Jeep at a pull-out a couple of hundred feet below the snow line and were soon asleep.
The next morning, we were up at 4:30 AM. By 5:00 AM we were snowshoeing up the dirt road. After 2.5 miles, we reached the Stuart Lake Trailhead at 6:00 AM. There, we turned left and started walking up a snow-covered abandoned logging road. Following the faint road cut, we gradually ascended northeast along the slopes above Mountaineer Creek until we reached an enormous wash-out at 3800'. There, we left the road and scrambled up 50' of rocks and dirt, which got us onto a broad ridge. The first 900' of the ridge had quite a bit of downed timber, but was easy snowshoeing with minimal snow covering. At this point it was becoming more work to ascend with the snowshoes than without, so we switched to post-holing. The next 2000' ascended through the burned-out dead tree remnants of the 1994 forest fire, with knee-deep snow. At that point we ascended through a clearing, and back into the forest. The next 1000' was laborious trail-breaking through thigh-deep powder. At 7700' we reached treeline, where we switched to crampons. We climbed wind-scoured snow and ice, angling to the left of the two small peaks, until we reached a snow ledge just below the ridge line. We traversed south along the snow ledge until Point 7989 became visible. We ascended the west side of Point 7989, reaching the top at 2:00 PM. We were treated to a fantastic view of Mount Stuart, Cashmere Mountain, and Glacier Peak. From Point 7989, the summit of Cannon Mountain was visible to the south. Unfortunately, it was at least three quarters of a mile away, with a long corniced ridge scramble in between. There was no way that we would be able to make the summit and get back to the road before dark. Furthermore, we were out of water (we started out a liter short due to a packing snafu). We reluctantly turned around and headed back down the ridge. We initially made good time with our snowshoes, but some of the sun-warmed snow slopes were starting to slide easily, which slowed our progress a bit. We veered off of our tracks near the bottom of the ridge and found a stream, where we were finally able to get some much-needed water. With a brief map check, we were back on the road by 4:30 PM. We bumped into Greg Mueller and Phil Fortier on the hike out along the road. By 6:15 PM we were back at the Jeep.
Gear we used: ice axe, crampons, snowshoes
Cannon Mountain summit
Steve climbing Peak 7989
Mount Stuart
Elain, on the summit of Peak 7989
View from the summit of Peak 7989
Cannon Couloir