In summer, the mountain's a lovely walk through the flowers. In fall, it's a lovely walk through ripe blueberry bushes. In winter, it's full of significant avalanche danger the type we don't mess with. In spring, though, the snow consolidates and the avalanche danger decreases enough for us to visit.

The perfect time to visit is under a blue sky in the upper 50s. There are killer glissades to be had. I held out hope, but when we arrived at the trailhead it was nothing but gray. Still, it looked like perhaps we'd get above the clouds. It would be glorious!

Except it wasn't. While we did get above the clouds, it was only the first layer of clouds we beat. For a short while, we could see laterally for miles as we climbed between the two layers. Then we entered the upper layer of clouds and visibility dropped to a few hundred feet. Occasionally, the cloud above would grow brighter and it looked like maybe, just maybe the sun would break through. Alas, no. (It was bright enough to give us mild burns, though. Another reminder to ALWAYS wear sunscreen.)

We followed tracks through the snow until they went the wrong way. We stuck to the traditional winter route up the ridge. The tracks soon rejoined our line and we followed them the rest of the way to the summit.

The lookout is open in the summer and there's usually a crowd seeking shade below. It was boarded up and still coated in ice as we neared the beginning of summer. (It was a hard winter and a cold spring. Instead of seeing 80+ hours over 70F in May, this year we had five. (Yeah. Like the number of fingers on your hand. (Well, most people's hands.))) We did quick photos and headed down.

Although there was still too much unstable snow above the best glissade routes, we took advantage of the seasonally-inappropriate snow cover on some lower-angle slopes down the mountain. I blazed a path and the boy followed. He had so much fun he climbed the slope to do it again. (Now that's dedication.)

I'd say we'd be back later in the spring or early summer to get the good glissades, but there's so many other spots to visit before the snow is gone I don't know that it will happen. We'll definitely be back for the blueberries, though.

📍On the lands of the Snoqualmie people.