Red Mountain is a fun, straightforward peak in the Salmon La Sac area that has a nice winter route. With the unseasonably cold April we have had in Washington, the route was still in good shape in early May.
Our group of 5 started out at the Red Mountain “trailhead” on the paved FS 4600 road that heads to the Pete Lake Trailhead. There was no space for parking cars, so we tucked ourselves into a small pull-out down the road a bit that also appeared to double as a dispersed camping site.
The first half mile or so was snow free and climbed gently before steepening considerably at 3000’. The trail had occasional patchy snow but was still mostly dry and easy to follow. As we began to climb further, the trail became fainter and fainter. Every now and then we had to battle through a bit of nasty slide alder, but for the most part it was typical east of the crest open forest. We were able to pick up traces of trail every now and then, proceeding straight up the ridge.
We crossed an old logging road and soon hit consistent snow at around 4100’. This was a blessing and made travel considerably easier. The snow was mostly consolidated, with only a rare posthole happening between the 5 of us, so we opted to not put on snowshoes.
Views began to open up as we climbed, looking back towards the Teanaway and Mount Stuart towering above the horizon. The climb was quite pleasant above the snowline, and we made quick work of it. The open slopes leading up to the summit would make a great backcountry ski run in the winter under the right conditions.
At around 5600’ we began a traverse over to the true summit, although there are two points which look to be of approximately equal height. We trusted the map and went over to the southern point, which is marked as the summit. We topped out 2 hours and 45 minutes from the car to great views – I especially loved looking back up towards Pete Lake and the rugged backbone of the Snoqualmie region, Chikamin, Lemah, and Chimney Rock. We seemed to have found a perfect hole in the weather and enjoyed some nice warm sunshine and a well-earned break.
The way down was highlighted by some epic glissading, making quick work of the upper reaches of the mountain. I made the “mistake” of wearing shorts and decided to do a running boot ski to try to catch up with the long pants-wearing glissaders. In retrospect, I should have just glissaded with them!
The rest of the return journey was uneventful, even though we still couldn’t find much trace of the trail on our descent. We battled through the same particularly bushy areas, being sure to stay on the ridge as we went.
Before long the trail began to reappear, and we were soon cruising back to the car. The trip was quick (5 hours and 38 minutes) but was the perfect choice for the conditions and highlighted a beautiful area of the Cascades.
Final Stats: 4.7 miles / 3248 feet of ascent
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