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Arrived at Denny Creek trailhead about 5:00 am. It's all paved road to the trailhead parking lot so your mode of transportation is fairly unlimited. I started up the trail about 5:30am as it was getting light enough to see without a headlamp.
It didn't take long to arrive at the fork in the trail for Brown Pass/Hartenstein Lake or Yale Mt. You go right here. I captured this photo on the way down as the mid day light was better.
Next you cross a couple of streams with logs. Don't make the mistake I made at the first creek crossing and cross on the rocks. If you go upstream about 10 yds you'll see the logs. It was still a little dark and I missed it. The rest of my hike was with wet feet which produced a couple of nice blisters.
Here is the second log crossing
After an hour or so I finally cleared the tree line and had my first look at Yale. You can see the saddle to the left that you have to gain then up the ridge to the summit
I had the pleasure of meeting Terry on the trail. We were exchanging hiking stories and we quickly realized we were both on Princeton the previous weekend. Terry honestly didn't think I was going to make it up Princeton as I was struggling with the altitude and the wind. His group passed me about 200ft from the summit. It was my first climb of the year and was very hard on me. Today was a huge improvement as I was more acclimated and the winds were much more favorable.
Here's a picture of Terry.
There was a couple of snow fields to cross but it was early and they were hard so we were able to walk across the top with no problem of post holing.
Here's a picture looking back down the trail with a hiker behind us.
Here's a look at Yale just before we gained the saddle. It was windy here and we stopped and put on some extra clothes to keep warm. We both had jackets, winter gloves, and thermal hoodies.
Another look at snow on the trail
A photo of Harvard (left) and Columbia (right) from the saddle
This is the trail conditions for the last push up the ridge to the false summit
Another look
Once you gain that ridge you get a look at your last 100ft to the summit. Here a great look at Terry clearing the last bit of rocks before you hit clear sailing all the way to the top.
The final push to the summit
Terry and me at the top with Harvard and Columbia to the right of us.
Here is a photo of the nice group we had at the top.
Here is a feller that reach the top right after we did.
The trip back down was nice, we had to peal off layers as we were getting pretty hot. We got back to the parking lot about 1:00 pm and met more nice people on the way down.
Except for my wet feet and a couple of blisters it was a great day. I would like to thank Terry who is a great guy to hike with and allowed me to share this day with him. Thanks Terry!!!
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
Great day! Do you think crampons would be helpful and/or necessary? Did you posthole coming down? Wondering because I‘m pack‘in a new ACL. Thanks for the report.
no need for crampons at all. the snow post holed a little bit after noon or so, but we had no big problems. snow covers a very small amount of the trail you‘ll be hiking. one of the people in your pictures was a member of my group!
Thanks for the SUPER report. We are headed up on 23 June. This is our best indication of what we will need to be prepared for. Great tip on keeping feet dry. Vort
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