Tomyhoi Peak is great Type 1 fun trip off the Mount Baker Highway. Eric and I started from the Yellow Aster Butte Trailhead at a reasonable 7:45 am. I had heard that Yellow Aster Butte was a nice hike, especially with fall colors popping, and I’d always wanted to check it out. We hiked up in a thick, weirdly humid, mist that was forecasted to burn off steadily throughout the day. It wasn’t long before we were bursting out of the woods and into beautiful meadows. We passed a few backpackers who had gotten early starts to hike out who were fed up with the fog and hoping it would clear for us.
Eventually, we rounded a corner with the option of continuing up to Yellow Aster Butte or descending into a beautiful basin dotted with many large tarns. This basin would make for a stunning easy backpacking trip. We descended into the misty meadows and charted a path through the miniature lakes. It was super cool to see this area with such a moody atmosphere, especially knowing that it would likely be clear and sunny when we came through later that afternoon on our return.
Once through the basin, the trail ascends steeply up to gain the main ridge emanating from Tomyhoi. This boot path is super steep, but it eventually levels out and we found ourselves on a broad ridge with good trail, what a dream! We took a short break at a small tarn just below 6400’ that would have a great infinity pool effect on a clear day. It was cool to watch the clouds swirling across the valley in front of Larrabee.
From this tarn we did a bit more gain and then came to a steep, unavoidable 200 foot slope that we were forced to descend on rough trail. At the bottom of this, there was an impressive cleft in the mountain that dropped a long way off to the valley floor to the east. More steep gain started to bring us to the upper reaches of Tomyhoi. By this point the clouds were starting to break up a bit. We were fully in the sun and beginning to see glimpses of Mount Baker in the distance, looking like it was floating on the cloud deck. Here there was an amazing stretch of ridgeline that offered fun hiking and amazing views in all directions. I absolutely love being on high alpine ridges.
Rounding a corner at 7200’ we finally hit the snow and the “technical” portion of the climb. Here we witnessed a group get out across the snowfield and balk at the last bit of steeper snow and rock transition to regain the ridge. This snow section for us in late August was pretty short. The runout was moderate, it flattened out a lot to where it would stop a fall, but not before a 100 foot slide on icy snow, not my idea of a good time. Regardless, for us there was a boot path cut into the slope and it didn’t feel overly exposed to me with an ice axe and microspikes. There was one awkward transition from snow onto some deceptively smooth rock, and then we came to the steeper snow section. This part was short and allowed for easy step kicking and ice axe placement, so it wasn’t too bad. Then, to gain the ridge, there were a few rock scrambling moves needed that required careful hand and foot placement. Overall, this section was the crux of the climb but can be handled easily with a bit of care. I was also confident about our ability to downclimb it on return, so we were full speed ahead to the summit.
The summit block looks steep from a distance, but like many things in the mountains it turned out to not be as vertical as we got closer. In fact, this was super fun sustained class 3 scrambling with a bit of exposure. I thought this part was great and not as loose or chossy as lots of Cascades climbing. After a while we wound up to the true summit at under 5 hours from the trailhead! What a great viewpoint and fun climb. There were still some clouds around but Baker and Shuksan and Larrabee were all visible, and it was cool to be so close to Canada.
After a good break taking some photos and admiring the view, Eric and I started our descent. The rock scrambling was fun again on the way down, and we didn’t have any problems with the snow traverse. The only section that gave us a little bit of pause was getting back on the snow. Here, the footholds felt a little bit blank, and it took a bit of feeling around to find good purchase. Once off the snow, we had nothing but smooth trail and wide-open views ahead of us. The day had turned brilliantly sunny and it was so great to see all of the Mount Baker Highway peaks, as well as more distant views of the western North Cascades.
It wasn’t long before we were cruising into the tarn basin. Here we took a swim in one of the largest ones. I was bracing myself for super cold water but was shocked to find it was actually quite warm. I didn’t even feel the need to get out, it was an amazing capper to a great summit experience on Tomyhoi. From there we hiked out on the Yellow Aster Butte trail through amazing meadows with sweeping views of Shuksan and Mount Baker. It’s got to be one of the best bang for your buck trails in WA.
Final Stats: 13.37 miles / 4,642 feet of gain
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