Photos from this trip can be found here.
Last I checked the weather forecast, nearly the entire Cascades was getting snow most of the day. So pups and I escaped to Wenatchee Mountains, mostly cloudy with more snow in late afternoon.
We first visited this mountain on a hot July summer day five years ago. It was due for another visit since forecast was much better here. The gate by road 7240 was still not closed for the season, so I drove through and parked by Tronsen Meadow Trailhead. Starting elevation around 4,000′ with some snow on the road.
Shortly after leaving the trailhead we crossed Tronsen Creek, few inches of snow in Tronsen Meadow. We made a left onto Haney Meadow Trail at 4,600, a few more inches of snow with some bear tracks crossing the trail. Well, obviously someone was still trying to stock up before turning in for a good while. It began to snow just then, three hours earlier than the weather forecast.
Right before getting out into the clearing I heard the wind blowing like crazy from across the gully at the bottom of Windy Knob. Too windy to be out in the open, so we left the trail and scrambled uphill to the pass between Diamond Head and Windy Knob. There I noticed some day-old ski tracks and followed them up the gentle east slopes to the summit. Meanwhile, snow was coming down harder.
Just as I remembered, the elongated summit was woodsy and relatively flat. We encountered lots of down trees closer to north end of summit with a few openings for views. Funny I didn’t remember seeing any down trees on top the first time. But if they were there before, we must’ve somehow bypassed them by staying alongside the eastern edge. Miraculously, it stopped snowing during our summit stay.
Never got to put snowshoes or spikes to work, not enough snow and we didn’t posthole.