6/12/2025 Route: Southwest Slopes Posted On: 6/13/2025, By: Eagle Eye Info: A nice trip 6/12 yesterday, I was the first on the summit (about 9 am) and the only one parked at Denny Creek TH when I set out, before sunrise. Much as described in the previous conditions, the creeks are are flowing strong but with great crossing points for all. There has been a lot of logs placed and erosion trail work done here since the last time I was here, which was almost this day last year. Thank you. Several snowfields remain before the saddle, and are mostly supportive/solid. Some mud, ice and snow remain in the summer route along and on the upper summit ridge. I brought micro spikes but didn't use them. It had been very windy near the saddle but let up on the summit. I didn't see anyone on the East Ridge route. happy trails!! Eagle Eye |
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6/10/2025 Route: Southwest Slopes Posted On: 6/10/2025, By: 4x4more Info: Conditions going up Mount Yale southwest slope were fantastic. Perfect weather in the AM. A few unavoidable snow patches still remain but they are short and there is packed snow to walk on. Just watch out for the deep post holes from previous hikers. |
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6/6/2025 Route: Southwest Slopes Posted On: 6/7/2025, By: Edrizzle Info: Hiked on 6/6. Left from trailhead around 4:45am. A couple snowfields still to navigate through but only postholed a few times. Glad I brought spikes as they were very helpful past the saddle and along the ridgeline towards the summit. Pretty windy and cloudy but overall a very fun day. |
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6/6/2025 Route: Southwest Slopes Posted On: 6/6/2025, By: Dignus Info: Same as last trip report; a few snowfields above treeline with minor postholing, snow on the ridge necessitates some extra caution on the exposed bits. Ascended with just trailrunners, descended with spikes. |
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5/31/2025 Route: Southwest Slopes Posted On: 6/2/2025, By: CUaaron25 Info: Hiked Yale from the Denny Creek TH Saturday. There is some intermittent snow through the trees that was tracked out enough not to need flotation. There were two snow crossings above treeline lower down on the slope leading to the ridge. Also manageable without floatation or traction early on. The ridge to the summit still has snow on it but I stayed mostly on the rocks and ridge proper and it went fine. Great day out! Had planned to do the east ridge the day before but just ended up hiking Pt. 12,005 with the family! |
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5/25/2025 Route: East Ridge Posted On: 5/25/2025, By: mikemalick Info: Did Yale from Avalanche TH today and then dropped down to Mascot Peak finally following that ridge back down to TH. Didn't take snowshoes. Only used trekking poles, gaiters and spikes. CT was in great shape. Any snow below the saddle where you turn left/West was trivial. That said, after turning left to start the ridge hike, there was snow in the trees. However, time of day and weather conditions let me stay atop the snow with no flotation for the most part. Snow didn't last that long. Snow along the ridge was sparse and easy to avoid. I avoided the snowier area near the 12,900' bump by heading right and then up the middle of the bump. Finally put on spikes around 13,400'. Some of those slopes were pushing the limits is spikes coupled with snow conditions getting worse as the day went on. Still worked well enough with good kick-steps. Kept them on till the summit just in case. Clouds moved in nearing the summit so no good pics from there. Again, kept spikes on during initial descent and took them off when I dropped down from the ridge to start over to Mascot. Didn't put them on again. There were some snow fields that I needed to cross on descent to the low point but those went just fine with heel kicks/plunge steps. Descent off Mascot back to Avalanche TH did have some snow but was never an issue needing spikes. Most could easily be avoided. |
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4/26/2025 Route: Southwest Slopes Posted On: 4/26/2025, By: Roughrider23 Info: Like most peaks right now, the snow above tree line is solid. I took snowshoes but only needed them between 10800’ and 11800’ going both up and down. That same elevation window in the afternoon was straight slushy and even in snowshoes with poles that have baskets I was sinking every few steps. Get an early start until the rest melts or another storm comes in! |
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4/25/2025 Route: Southwest Slopes Posted On: 4/25/2025, By: notidealbutfine Info: Definitely not worth hauling the skis all the way up there. There's a decent amount of snow down low still, but certainly not continuous enough to ski. Nice consolidated snow on my ascent. Summited at noon. Managed to ski a little over a mile starting at ~13,500 on good snow. Snow below tree line was awful and not continuous enough to ski. Certainly felt like a slog on the way down to me. Snowshoes and boots would have been a better choice. 10.56 miles / 4,390' gain / 8 Hours, 3 Minutes |
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4/13/2025 Route: East Ridge Posted On: 4/14/2025, By: rgsaxman Info: Started from Avalanche TH at 5:30am, snow was continuous on the CT around 10,900’ and supportive in the morning. The ridge was mostly snow-free but a few areas necessitated going around some of the ridge points, wore spikes on the way down but didn’t really have to. Post-holed most of the way down the CT even in snow shoes, the heat really softened things up. Great day out in total solitude! |
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4/6/2025 Route: Southwest Slopes Posted On: 4/7/2025, By: Camden7 Info: Ascended Mascot Peak then the south Ridge of Yale. Descended Standard Southwest Slopes. Avalanche danger is minimal at this point, with very little snow on the steepest areas. The trail is well packed to the junction at 10,740, not requiring floatation. Above that, there is a path that has been put in, but we were the first on it since the last storm cycle and it had breakable crust over sugar. Snowshoes stay on top at this time. Floatation highly recommended. At the creek crossing at 11,280, any semblance of a trail disappears. The snowpack from here to treeline is deep and unconsolidated. Wearing snowshoes, we often sank to thigh or waist deep. It was difficult to descend and would be prohibitively difficult to ascend. Expect serious delays at this time. The warm weather this week will likely help immensely, but the snowpack is very deep and the heavily shaded forest may protect the sugar-snow and maintain the difficult conditions. The upper face is mostly shallow snow over rocks, and the summit ridge is quite arduous with snow veiling gaps in the boulders. Until the snowpack becomes more supportive it would probably be more enjoyable to use the east ridge or select a different objective. Be safe out there! |
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4/6/2025 Route: Southwest Slopes Posted On: 4/7/2025, By: Camden7 Info: Ascended Mascot Peak then the south Ridge of Yale. Descended Standard Southwest Slopes. Avalanche danger is minimal at this point, with very little snow on the steepest areas. The trail is well packed to the junction at 10,740, not requiring floatation. Above that, there is a path that has been put in, but we were the first on it since the last storm cycle and it had breakable crust over sugar. Snowshoes stay on top at this time. Floatation highly recommended. At the creek crossing at 11,280, any semblance of a trail disappears. The snowpack from here to treeline is deep and unconsolidated. Wearing snowshoes, we often sank to thigh or waist deep. It was difficult to descend and would be prohibitively difficult to ascend. Expect serious delays at this time. The warm weather this week will likely help immensely, but the snowpack is very deep and the heavily shaded forest may protect the sugar-snow and maintain the difficult conditions. The upper face is mostly shallow snow over rocks, and the summit ridge is quite arduous with snow veiling gaps in the boulders. Until the snowpack becomes more supportive it would probably be more enjoyable to use the east ridge or select a different objective. Be safe out there! |
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3/26/2025 Route: East Ridge Posted On: 3/27/2025, By: mackgriffin Info: Snowshoes recommended and spikes recommended. Wore snowshoes on the way up shortly after getting into the trees around 10500’. Trail to the ridge was hard to follow in some spots. Put spikes on and ditched snowshoes after gaining the ridge and leaving the treeline around 1200’. There are two visible spots on the ridge where the trail dips left off the south of the ridge and across some steep snow. There was an obvious trench for both sections but the snow was weak and made for very slow going. After the second of these two sections, the climb back to the ridge is directly up a pretty steep scree face. Made it to the first false summit around 13300’ before turning back for time. Stayed on the ridge for the descent which entailed some very brief borderline class 3 stuff but was 100% better than the standard trail in these conditions. Would recommend staying ridge direct instead of following the trench. Photo 1: View of the route from the start of the ridge. Photo 2: Looking down on the trail from 12100’. |
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3/1/2025 Route: East Ridge Posted On: 3/3/2025, By: NittanyLion14er Info: Mixed trail conditions but mostly exposed rock/dirt, some snow near the summit but did not need spikes. Ridge to Mascot bare opposite of side of snow line/cornices. Dropped down ridge from Mascot instead of return to Yale, deep snow and post-holed with spikes and change out to snow shoes. Glissaded a bit through some steeper sections, not conducive to effective glissading. Once down about 1/2 - 2/3rds, mix snow, bare, loose dirt, and grass along drainage. Followed bare dirt game trail along ridge and drainage. |
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2/28/2025 Route: Southwest Slopes Posted On: 3/2/2025, By: MattHamma Info: Summited 2/28 with Andrew K. Started at 5am, finished around 4pm for ~11 hours. Beautiful bluebird day with no wind. Used snowshoes up to the top of the summit ridge at ~13.9k. Switched to crampons + axe from there, as there was no track and it was a nice mix of snow, ice, and rock. Switched back to snowshoes at ~13k --- lots of melt between start to finish, and a fair bit of postholing getting back down to the fork at 1.3 miles, so snowshoes were nice to have. Lots of melt on the way down above the treeline, left spots completely exposed on the trail that had snow previously. Fairly slowgoing as we had to put in track above ~12.5k and the melt on the way down. Helluva day |
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2/28/2025 Route: East Ridge Posted On: 3/1/2025, By: tothestars Info: Avalanche trailhead is dry and warm, don't let that fool you! Snow shoes were still helpful from around mile 1.5-3.5. The snow was quite heavy and wet, especially on the descent after a day of warming. The first mile is pretty melted out. Figured that meant today would be easy but the East ridge is definitely a fun-scramble-snow mixed rock and ice, aka a bit of a sloooow process especially since it's my first time up there and I was looking for the best line to take as I climbed. There's a nice false summit just after you emerge from treeline, almost tricked me but I knew it wasn't big enough for 2,000 more feet of climbing. Truly enjoyed the variety on this climb: 3.5 miles in the forest, 2 miles of ridge traversing. Still enough snow on the ridge that I was alternating between climbing up soft sinky-snow and climbing over and around boulders and through scree fields. Somehow Yale has a bit of every kind of fun. Used snow shoes and crampons. Kept my crampons on for the whole ridge because there was so much variety and mix of snow/ice and rock, though you could do it without them just some sections of stiff snow fields/ice. Same with snow shoes, on the way up I put them on about 2 miles in to make it a bit easier but could've managed without them-- I will say on the way back with softer snow I tried without the snow shoes but put them on after 3/4 mile as I kept having one foot sink to knee or waist level. Definitely easier with them. Skiing wouldn't be too great as the snow was pretty melted/crunchy in the cool temps and like cement in the warm temps. 11.2 miles / 5,200ft ascent |
