We hiked to the base of Melted Mountain Last October before turning around. This weekend, avalanche danger had heightened. So we looked for places with minimal open terrain and came back here. It was great to be in the Cascades again after last week.
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Melted Mountain at a Glance
Access: Index Creek Trailhead
Round Trip: TBD
Elevation Range: 1240′-5520′
Gear: snowshoes
GPS Track: available
Dog-Friendly: with guidance
Index Creek Trail
I put on snowshoes at a quarter of a mile in on the trail. The snow conditions weren’t ideal. So after a while, the hiking became a bit arduous. But the snow made route finding much more manageable.
Using snow, we were then able to cross Index Creek to the south side more smoothly. At the same time, we avoided lots of brush from the time before. But the views were minimal since we were in the dense forest.
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Melted Mountain East Ridge
The route up the steep east ridge was straightforward. But we sometimes needed to bypass a large number of down trees. The logs eventually dwindled at 3000′. Then the ridge steepened for the next 200′.
Snow conditions were hit-or-miss from that point. But it could have been firmer for the ease of the traverse. Later, the terrain flattened a bit just as we came out into a clearing at 3400′. Then it soon steepened again from 3600′ to 4000′.
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Melted Mountain Summit
The final 200′ up to the top was much enjoyable. Cornices were on the north and west sides of the broad summit. The trees were far apart enough to see more. The best views were to the east and northeast. There we saw Baring Mountain, Merchant Peak, Gunn Peak, Gunnshy, etc.
We also had views of Mount Index, Frozen Mountain, and Palmer Mountain from here. But we couldn’t see places like Philadelphia Mountain, Crosby Mountain, and Red Mountain. Not without walking down the ridge. It was another vantage point to view the Skykomish River spanning across the valley.
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Outro
On the way down, we used our tracks. So we made it back into the lower forest in no time. Later, we crossed Index Creek and then hiked back out to the car.
See more trip photos here.