Mount Price by Sorcery Mountain towers above Hester Lake in Middle Fork Snoqualmie. It joins Big Snow Mountain to the northeast via the east ridge. Moreover, its nearest higher neighbor sits slightly over two miles south.
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Mount Price at a Glance
Access: Dingford Creek Trailhead
Round Trip: 15.6 mles
Elevation Range: 1400′-5587′
Gear: helmet
GPS Track: available
Dog-Friendly: on the trail
The Preface
I first saw Mount Price from the top of Snoqualmie Mountain. Over the years, I would repeatedly see it from places in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. Then I finally had the chance to visit the mountain this week.
For some reason, I’ve always thought that the climb began from the Middle Fork Campground. That’s why I never pursued it, thinking it’d be too long of a trek. But after our recent outing, I did some digging and found that wasn’t the case.
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Dingford Creek Trail
Many cars were at the lot when Cody and I arrived after a rough drive. I chatted with another hiker as we were preparing to leave. Then I discovered that the trailhead was also the start of Goldmyer Hot Springs.
We reached Hester Lake’s outlet six miles into the hike. We walked past two nice campsites before the trail soon ended. Then I looked for a path along the lakeshore, nothing much except brush and slide alder.
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Hester Lake and Little Hester Lake
We first traversed higher, away from the lakeshore. Then I remembered a report suggesting staying low and hugging the shoreline. But it was a pain to go around the lake through the brush without snow.
Eventually, we made it to the west shore by the talus between the two lakes. Then we avoided the brush and cliff bands by hugging the rocks. The clouds had moved into the area when we reached Little Hester Lake’s outlet.
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Mount Price North Ridge
We couldn’t see the entire lake but walked clockwise to the west and took a break there. Miraculously, clouds drifting over the lake 20 minutes earlier had suddenly lifted. The mountain wanted us to get the views, I thought.
Once at the 4680′ saddle, we worked our way up the north ridge. En route, we bypassed two places with cliffs and giant boulders from the west. I was happy we could stay on the ridgeline at least half the time.
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The Final Stretch
As the east slopes steepened, I soon got the first view of the summit from the 5200′ meadow. There was dense growth right after passing the grass field below the top. En route was also more exposure, which we needed to be mindful of.
I relied on many veggie belays to move upward, but the exposure didn’t faze the pup. Slowly, the terrain leveled off 50′ below the top. Then we finished the last bit of climbing with a short and easy walk-up.
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Mount Price Summit Plus Outro
I paced along the east ridge to photograph places from where I had seen the mountain. Views were overall decent except for the north. Big Snow Mountain was still in the mists to see clearly. I peeked at Chair Peak and a bit of Snow Lake.
Also, both lakes looked even more enormous from here; optical illusion, perhaps. I gave ourselves enough time to return to Hester Lake to leave the area before dark. Then it was six miles of hiking back to the car in the night.
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