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Treacherous Trail

Trail requires special care due to difficult or technical obstacles

Muttonchop Butte, OR | July 2022

Submitted by K7ATN on
Summit

Muttonchop Butte, Oregon is west of the intersection of Highway 58 and Highway 97. The bushwack from the north was not pleasant, see if you can find the trail that leads to 0.5 mile west of the Quarry OHV area. Take Highway 58 4.2 miles from Highway 97 and turn left onto Road 5825. Follow to the Quarry OHV area starting from about here:43.3617 -121.8485. 

Mt St Helens, WA | March 2022

Submitted by N7KOM on
Summit

On the last weekend of no permits a weather window opened up for an overnight hike & early morning activation of Mt St Helens. The trail was covered with snow to the parking lot. I hit the trail at 1:20am and made good time to chocolate falls on skis. Somewhere heading up the ridge I had to make the switch to bootpacking the skis. Heavier backpack, but faster travel overall. 

Mount McLoughlin, OR | Feb 2022 (Winter Route)

Submitted by N7KOM on
Summit

A friend from Eugene wanted to hit Mount McLoughlin in the winter and despite the drive distance from Beaverton, it looked like too beautiful a mountain to pass up. After picking up rental snowshoes from REI in Medford I made it to the Summit Sno-Park TH at sunset. Casey arrived shortly after and we made some quick dinner on our backpacking stoves then turned in for the night. 

Cooper Mountain, WA | Feb 2022

Submitted by K7NCM on
Summit

I skied up Cooper Mountain on Feb 6, 2022 for its first-ever winter activation and my first trip up it. This looks to be a drive-up summit in the summer, but winter is a very different story unless you have a snowmobile (there is a groomed snowmobile trail all the way to the summit, so that would be quite easy). However, I do not have a snowmobile, so I made the trip on my new Altai Hok 125 cm skis.

Mt Hood, OR | Jan 2022

Submitted by N7KOM on
Summit

Yesterday morning I climbed Mt. Hood (W7O/CN-001) for a sunrise SOTA. I think this was my 6th ascent of Hood. Conditions on the mountain change daily & weekly. This was one of the more difficult ascents & descents. 

My friends and I left the climbers lot at Timberline just before 2am. We took our time and made the top of Palmer around 3:40am. After a quick breakfast we continued up the mountain on good solid snow. We were hit with sulfur from Devils Kitchen throughout the hike up. 

Wickiup Mountain, OR | November, 2021

Submitted by K7AHR on
Summit

Wickiup Mountain is a summit on the edge of Astoria's Bear Creek Watershed, from which they draw their water, as well as an active radio site. As such, access from the south is gated, and road access from the north stops just shy of the summit. What followed is one of the thickest, roughest bushwhacks, mile for mile, of my SOTA career, but it was nice to tick this one off the list. If you route find a little better than I do, you might have a better time, and if you hit it earlier in the year, the die-back of the brush might benefit you.

Scraggy Mountain, CA Oct 2021

Submitted by AG7GP on
Summit

Not recommended at all. This was treacherous. I got pretty torn up trying to get through some difficult brush and rocky cliffs. I never made it to the very peak and had to call it good enough because of exhaustion, dangerous drops, being alone etc. I also lost my pole somewhere trying to get through the 10ft tall thickets I am guessing. It was rough. If I every try again I will try a different route and will definitely not do it alone.

de AG7GP

Cherry Peak, OR Oct 2021

Submitted by AG7GP on
Summit

Another one I have wanted to get over to do before the snow comes. The area is magical this time of the year with the aspen turning around the basin. The hike was pretty difficult. Combination of bushwacking in tall brush, lava flow, and down trees. I parked SW of the peak, near where there once was road 3519-700, still on some maps. I was trying to beat an incoming storm and it got very windy but my big dilemma was I got to boulder climbing to the peak, just past the AZ and my dog would not go further.