Bryant Peak, as seen from the basin southwest of the peak
The forecast for the weekend looked excellent, with low avalanche hazard and a stable high pressure system. Elain and I wanted to take advantage of the weather window to scramble a peak. Flipping through Dallas Kloke's guidebook of winter climbs, we stumbled upon Bryant Peak. It sounded like the right level of difficulty and strenuousness for a day hike. We decided to try the southwest face route, which is best approached from the Denny Creek trailhead. We didn't know what to expect in terms of ice conditions on the summit of the peak, and the only trip reports we could find were for the more technical north-side routes to the peak. As a result, we packed way too much gear. After a mile on Forest Service road 58, the road became snow-covered. By the time we got to the turn-off at the spur road that goes to the Denny Creek trailhead, the road was blanketed by 8-10" of snow. We got a little bit greedy and tried to drive across the little bridge that crosses the South Fork of the Snoqualmie River. About 10 meters beyond the bridge, the Jeep got stuck. We spent about 90 minutes trying to get it unstuck, and with the help of two passing snowshoers, finally got the Jeep back on the other side of the bridge (hooray for 4-wheel-drive low gear).
We finally set out on the trail at about 9:30 AM. It was a beautiful winter morning with clear blue sky (just a few high cirrus clouds) and cold temperatures. Initially the trail was packed down so well that we didn't really need snowshoes, but we put ours on so we wouldn't have to carry them on our backs. We made slow time, stopping for lunch along the trail, and reaching Hemlock Pass at noon. At the pass we chatted with a couple of snowshoers from Tacoma (these were the same folks who helped us get our car unstuck), who were on their way to Melakwa Lake. Following Beckey's route description, we headed off northeast, on the north side of Hemlock Pass. From here on out, we had to break trail, which slowed us down a bit. We soon found ourselves looking at cliffs above us blocking our progress, and we could see Melakwa Lake downslope. A quick check of the map showed that we needn't have gone past Hemlock Pass, but that we were not too far off course. We skirted climber's right around the cliffs, and were soon kicking steps up a forested slope just to the left of the gully that Becky mentions in his route description. We followed the gully until reaching a basin below Bryant Peak at about 2 PM. From the southwest side, Bryant Peak is not a very imposing presence, but with time running short we welcomed what would apparently be a simple summit scramble. Ditching our snowshoes, we started up one of the avalanche gullies that we reckoned would provide good step-kicking. The afternoon sun was quickly turning the southwest-facing slope to isothermal mush, so we switched to climbing through the trees where the snow was more shaded. We reached the summit ridge at 3 PM. While I was scrambling along the ridge towards the true summit, I fell through a hole in the snow, bashing my knee on a rock. I decided to stay put and rest my knee while Elain went over and tagged the true summit, just a few meters away. We started back down and reached our showshoes at 4 PM. On the hike out, we decided not to return via Hemlock Pass, but to descend straight into the Denny Creek basin. The sun set just as we reached the creek. The bright 3/4 moon cast the whole valley in a pale glow as we walked out under the stars. We reached the trailhead at 18:30 PM.
Gear we used: ice axe, snowshoes. (For the Jeep: tire chains and shovels)
Bryant Peak, as seen from the basin southwest of the peak
Elain on the summit of Bryant Peak
Kaleetan Peak and Chair Peak, as seen from the summit of Bryant Peak
Mount Rainier, as seen from the summit of Bryant Peak
Steve on the summit of Bryant Peak
Steve descending from Bryant Peak
Elain descending the gully below Bryant Peak
Steve hiking back to the trail, at sunset