Persis seems like it should be a popular winter climb. Proximity to the Seattle area, a safe winter route, and incredible views of Index and other peaks all make it a very appealing destination. The only problem? There is a locked gate on highway 2 that adds 5.5 miles one way of forest road to reach the trailhead.
Our group consisted of Mike, Eric, and myself. Eric kindly offered me usage of one of his e-bikes, while Mike, an accomplished runner, decided he would run ahead and meet us at the trailhead. Not only is the road 5 and a half miles long, but it also gains about 2500 feet in the process. We were very impressed by Mike’s ambitious running plan on top of an already challenging snow climb.
We parked at the gate, and Mike set off while Eric and I got ourselves situated on the e-bikes. Even with the boost from the bikes, it was still challenging biking conditions. There was one pleasant stretch of flat where we could really cruise, but overall it was steep and rocky, and I found myself walking the bike in several places. We hit one part of the road that was shaded and quite icy, and it was at this point that it became clear that we weren’t going to catch Mike, even with electronic assistance.
We were also passed by a few cars that had a key to the gate, which was a bit demoralizing, even though they reassured us that they were “cheating”. Thankfully, the one stretch of ice and snow was the only real obstacle we encountered, and the upper reaches of the road were mostly clear of any snow.
After more grueling climbing/bike pushing, we eventually met up with Mike at the switchback below the official trailhead, where all the cars had decided to park. He hardly looked winded, which was insanely impressive to me.
After locking up the bikes and setting out, we walked up the final short stretch of road before reaching the trail. It was almost comical how steep the trail was when contrasted with the wide, flat road we were walking on. As we climbed, we quickly realized that we were surrounded by scraggly new growth trees that had grown after this slope had been reforested. The trail was a complete tree-tunnel and often involved pushing through branches.
Despite this we made good progress, encountering a boulder field that had just enough snow to be filled in, but not enough where there was no chance of post-holing. We were very careful in this section. Above that, snow became more consistent around 4400’. We mistakenly followed some tracks up to near the northwest peak of Persis, which necessitated some extra elevation gain and downclimbing but wasn’t a big deal. We made a note to traverse under this on the way back.
From here we passed by a notch at around 4900’ that had great views of the steep north face of Persis and final 500 or so feet of climbing. The terrain eased up here and we eventually broke out of the woods. We crossed a wide expanse of snow where two (long-frozen) tarns are located before making the final ascent to the summit.
The views were excellent, Index was incredibly impressive and rugged looking from this vantage point, and I loved looking down to the valley below where the north and south forks of the Skykomish River were converging in front of Gunn Peak. Seattle and Bellevue the Olympics were also clearly visible to the west.
Because of a temperature inversion, it was warm and comfortable at the summit, and we took our time relaxing before heading down.
On the descent, we were careful not to posthole in the boulder field, and scraped our way through more scrubby new growth, before finally getting back to the road.
Mike quickly took off running as Eric and I situated the bikes. Surely we would beat him down on bikes, right? Wrong! We were riding our brakes down steep, rutted, and sometimes icy roadbed while he was flying down on foot. He beat both of us back to highway 2, what a machine!
Final Stats (Hiking): 6.45 miles / 2890 feet of gain
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