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Treacherous Trail

Trail requires special care due to difficult or technical obstacles

Forbidden Peak, WA | Aug 2025

Submitted by WA7BEN on
Summit

Forbidden Peak is a ten point summit that is one of the most popular rock climbing objectives in the Cascade mountains. The summit can be approached from three ridges, with the West Ridge being the easiest and most frequently climbed. The West Ridge is famous for high-exposure, high quality 4th and easy 5th class climbing and a crux at 5.6. It is listed in the 1979 climbing guidebook "Fifty Classic Climbs of North America" by Steve Roper and Allen Steck.

W7W/LC-067

Submitted by KD7QOW on
Summit

There is no poison oak on this summit, at least not that I was able to identify, and it is my mortal enemy, so I've gotten pretty good at predicting where I'll find it and identifying it from an appreciable distance. I just wanted to clarify that as a previous post claimed to have encountered poison oak. 

W7W/LC-079

Submitted by KD7QOW on
Summit

This summit is a horrible bushwhack, and like many of the summits in this part of the Gifford Pinchot, it's barely worth the points considering the effort it takes to climb it. It's steep and brushy and about the only nice thing I can say about it is there's no devil's club to contend with. You would think, upon finally obtaining the activation zone, that the return trip would be easier, but it is not. It's worse because you can't see where you're putting your feet. 

Ski Acres Hill , WA | June 2025

Submitted by K7ATN on
Summit

Per WW7D there are numerous ways to get to Ski Acres Hill, including walking up the ski slopes. The ski area is open to hikers in the summer.  

The "back way" from Hyak involves navigating some gnarly FS roads and does not involve going on any private property. The PCT also passes 1/3 of a mile (and 1000' gain) to the west of the summit. One could take the PCT and bushwhack up to the summit.

For he last two activations the back way from Hyak was used.It was all FS roads to the start of the (same) short bushwhack. There were no closed gates either way. 

Howlock Mountain, OR | July 2025

Submitted by N7KOM on
Summit

Howlock Mountain had caught my eye during the 2023 W7O Campout. It was an unactivated summit off trail north of Thielsen and south of Tipsoo. For 2025, Adam K6ARK and Mark KD7DTS proposed doing the ridge traverse from Tipsoo (W7O/CS-195). After some VHF shenanigans on Tipsoo, we backtracked on the trail briefly before leaving it and descending south. 

Jumbo Peak, WA | June 2025

Submitted by K7AGL on
Summit

The double summit activation of Sunrise Peak and Jumbo Peak is under 9 miles RT and 3500 feet vertical climbing. My milage was off a bit due to probing for a south approach on Jumbo. There are a number of trip reports floating around on the web, I would rate this activation as an “advanced” SOTA adventure. I started from Sunrise TH 262. Google Maps routed me to this TH with no issues. It took me 1.5 hours to get to the trailhead departing from Mossyrock, WA.

sawtooth mountain wa | sept 24

Submitted by K7WXW on
Summit

Summary - Sawtooth Mountain, on the north end of Indian Heaven Wilderness, is a 2.5 mile hike with 1000 feet of gain from the parking lot to the edge of the activation zone. This trip report describes getting to the summit, another hundred feet or so up, with unprotected class three and four traverses/climbing and significant exposure.