Bouncing to the top of Frog Peak

The Beginning

Time Round trip: 7 Hours (9 a.m.-4 p.m.)
Distance: 8 Miles
Elevation Gain: 2300 Feet? (Summit 4872 ft)
Members: Redwic, Eastking, and I

After my Steven's Pass attempt, my weekend seemed to be turning out pretty bad, but then I had remembered about Redwic offering me Mount Goblin on sunday. On Saturday night before I went to bed I thought about packing my things that night and remembered what people had told me about packing stuff the night before, but then the voice in my head says "oh you can go ahead and do that in the morning and set the alarm early". I spent about a minute that night making sure the alarm was set, and even turned it off and then back on to make sure there was no glitches in the alarm clock... or that's what I expected. I should have taken my friend Mark's advice, I need a new alarm.

Bam! I wake up at about 6:35 with Redwic at my door. "Oh no, not again!" because I have had a few other trips recently of a late wake up due to alarm issues, one because of daylights saving time, and another perhaps for the same reasonin but I did not know at the time. So I go round up all my gear as fast as I could, fortunately I had much of it already packed from my Steven's Pass attempt. fortunately the only thing I did not pack was ski polls, and most importantly my cake.


We meet at the McDonalds as usual and head on over to the trailhead. As we are driving we hit snow, which was fine, until we started hearing the sound of snow crunching the bottom of the car. As we are driving we get to an area where we were unsure if we could get any further. There goes Mount Goblin, so then we try to decide what do do now. Eastking suggests Mount Cleveland again (I suppose we will never hear the end of Cleveland and Mount Goblin!) but Rewic insist on us going up Frog Peak. This indeed turned out to be a nice pick. Backing the car up was a bit of a hassle, and we had to give the car a push to get it in the parking spot.

The Trip begins

The road walk starts out snowy, so Eastking and I put my gaiters on right away. We start to leave the road pretty soon and just go towards the mountains through the woods. There ended up being a bit of bush whacking as usual, and going up a steep slippery part (everyone else went around). As we hit back into snow, it became obnoxious at times, you would sink in with tree branches and such with it being all slippery, so I would end up having to be careful, everyone else had ski polls to make it easier.


Eventually we decide to put on our snow shoes, which at first were magic wonders, but as the heat of the day wore on, the snow became softer, and some of the sinking became unavoidable, fortunately they still helped a lot! As we were traversing this one section I realize I don't have my camera! A red light goes off in my head, and I quickly explain the situation and dash down the mountain in search for it. Fortunately I found it only a few hundred feet behind us, but in the future I'll have to not attach it to this one strap that I thought was trustable. Then I caught up and continued heading up the slope. As we got to steeper ground, the view opened more, and so did the slope.


As we were hiking, suddenly I hear a "BOOOOM!" and it turns out to be an avalanche from us, it sounded like an explosion, although it wasn't super loud (although for being as far away as it was, it was loud), it brought me some entertainment. At this point we decided it was best to follow up through the trees to avoid avalanche danger on our slope. Once we pass the steepest section of the trip, Columbia and Kyes Peak come into view which as always were very beautiful mountains.


We decide for the summit ridge to take off our snowshoes and plow the rest of the way up. When I made a snow ball and threw it off to the side of the steep slope, it was interesting to see how much snow it collected into a big ball and fall over, then it would create a little slide that looked like a strip as it kept sliding down the slope. Soon we got to the summit with decent views, and a nice break, great weather, and no winds.

Going down the Mountain

We took some photos and such, and after a while started to head down. The glissades on the way down were awesome, not once did I have to ice axe arrest on the slope, yet I could still gain some pretty good speed, and still remain in good control. As I went down I would have to avoid falling into tree wells by stopping, and then continuing again. To prevent myself from getting too off course from our original tracks I traversed the slope. Later as I went down I worried not only about getting too far off course but being separated from Eastking and Redwic. I headed over to my right, and to my relief found our tracks again. They took a while to get to me, but I suppose I lost 1,000 feet of elevation faster than most folks, to me it felt like seconds.


Once the group reformed we decided to take a creek bed route down, which worked at first but had some navigating, post holing, and bush wacking. At one point I took a step and I plunged through the snow in such a way that I ended up having my shin slammed by a tree branch below the snow. "Ouuuuuccchhhhh!" I tried to hold it in, it was one of the more painful things I have experienced in a long time. A little while later I some how end up stepping over something and then hurting the other shin, not as bad, but still not pleasant.

We soon followed for a a while some old looking roads that had trees and branches that went through the road. By this point I started to say "I knew I should have brought that third liter of water" because there was water melting all around us, and I had become low on water. We once again decide to take a short cut down and it ends up bringing us back more bush wacking and creating more troubles. Soon after going through all this stuff we finally get to the last hill, which goes to the car.

The trip was not over at this point for me, it is never so simple. From the road we look up the mountain and see our glissade trails way up the mountain! Then we head home, and that is when trouble starts hitting. The drinking all the water took its toll on me, the ride to Monroe was very painful with all the traffic, it was faster us taking scenic side roads than it was going 5 mph on the main highway! Once we got to Monroe I was so happy! Once I took care of the problem, this is when I got to say the trip was over. Redwic took me all the way home which was very much appreciated. And Yes Curtis, I offered him gas money, as I was heading in with my gear I go to hurry to give him cash, but Redwic already drove away. Well I guess I could always pay him later.
Once again this was another fun trip, and I am glad to have come with. Thanks Eastking for giving me some spare water on the way home and such, and Thanks Redwic for driving us, and giving me a ice screw.

Images

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