I’ve been wanting to snowshoe from the tram to Marion and “Mt St. Ellen’s” since my last trip in 2017. Yesterday, Kalen and I took the tram (our first trip up since the Valentine's day flood). After chatting with tram family, we headed up Sid Davis to Tamarack. Bernie (aka Mountain Goat) joined us in Tamarack. The three of us hiked together to the bottom of the Miller Saddle. Bernie headed up to San Jacinto, while Kalen and I went up near the Jean gully to the ridge. At Jean, I turned on my Gaia.
We dropped down from Jean and traversed around several bumps and Shirley. I didn’t want to miss the saddle between Marion and Mt. St. Ellen’s, so headed up too soon and visited several bumps on Marion. Dropped back down and traversed around the Marion summit block to the correct saddle, then headed up Mt. St. Ellen. Enjoyed the views, ate lunch, signed the register and made our way back to Jean. Stopped frequently to check Gaia. At last we climbed back up to Jean, then headed along the ridge to San Jacinto.
On San Jacinto, we met a large group that had hiked C2C
including my friend Brent. Also met Alex who started later than the group and hung around with them at the summit. Alex descended with us via the winter route back to the tram. We took Alex and other C2Cer's back to their cars near the museum TH, then enjoyed a fabulous dinner with Alex at the original Las Casuelas. Conditions -- booted it up from the tram to Tamarack and donned snowshoes when we started to break through the snow at upper Tamarack -- it was really warm. Used the snowshoes for the rest of our hike and removed then in Tamarack on our return. Sid Davis is a mess with deadfall, snow and running water. Still better than hiking the main trail.
Miles of smiles,
Ellen
