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The Jim Hill Nemesis

Larry Ingalls

Jim Hill Mountain is just east of Stevens Pass right up from Lanham Lake and has been on my lists of "summits" for years. But every time I have tried to snowshoe to the summit, something has thwarted me. The first time the team had concerns about avalanche danger. The second attempt was turned around by snow, 30 MPH winds, and a minus zero wind chill factor. On the third try, cracks in the snow crust that shot out as we stepped out onto the steep slope convinced us to turn around. The fourth attempt was a great outing watching fog crystals at close range. Turned around that time also.

Since this trip has turned out to be an annual event, I decided to schedule another attempt. In the week before the trip I watched the avalanche report and the weather. It was nothing but snow, snow, and snow. Avalanche report-considerable, extreme, stay home! Then the weather turned, slightly. But by Friday evening, the rain rolled back into the Sound; arrgh! Do I call this thing off? Nah, a little walk in the snow and rain never hurt anyone. We met at the Monroe P&R lot in the rain. Do we call this off? Nah, let's at least get some exercise. We headed east on Highway 2. Skykomish-What is that bright light to the east? Oh my, it's the sun! By the time we get to Stevens Pass it is "clear and million", not a cloud in the sky.

Something is wrong; this is a Jim Hill trip. We parked at the Lanham Lake trailhead and were on our way by 8:30. The sun was still behind the ridge, but the sky was that deep blue with trees totally white with snow from earlier in the week. By the time we got to the lake, the sun was peaking over the ridge. We turned left to a heading of 100° to gain the ridge. The ridge was steep, but the snow was surprisingly stable, making for good climbing. A few clouds were starting to show up. We turned south and ran the ridge heading toward the east summit. The snow was deep and breaking trail was a workout. Again, the snow appeared to be reasonably stable. Up we go. The trees along the ridge were cast in snow showing the sculpturing talent of the wind. Just below the east summit we turned southwest and transition out onto the 25 degree slope that leads to the saddle between the east and west summits.

Check that snow - it is looking good. What is going on here? This is a "Jim Hill" trip! Oh my, we are at the saddle. That ridge going west looks tough with those steep 45-degree slopes off both sides. Well, let's try to run the crest and see what we find. Up a comfortable section and then there is a steep slope of about 45 degrees. Snow is good, no problem getting to the top of that. Oops, thin ridge; think we need to drop down about 10 feet and traverse below this on the south side. Our line worked fine and the snow was still surprisingly stable. Around and back up to the ridge crest.

What? We just ran out of "up"; this is it? What happened? This is a "Jim Hill" trip and we are on the summit! Where did that sun go? It was getting a little windy, so we decided not take a nap on the summit. Down we went. Back to the saddle; or is it "back in the saddle again?" Gulp some warm soup and let's get out of Dodge. The trip down was fast. The soft snow makes for easy travel giving us that feeling of having pillows on our feet. It took us less than half the time to get back to the trailhead as it did for us to get up. This was timely, because the sky let loose and down came the snow! It was great getting to the summit, but I will miss scheduling my annual trip to Jim Hill.