Trip Report
We were in the Spokane area for a softball tournament (go figure, right). Mount Spokane dominates the Spokane skyline, so it has always been on my list. In addition to being a noticable landmark, Mount Spokane is a county highpoint and has 3513 feet of prominence. I needed to get to the top!
This winter saw snowfall of 150 to 200% of normal in the Mount Spokane area. I had been watching the webcam and noticed the area was well covered in snow despite only being 4200 feet. I decided to take skis to the top and ski down.
Now I just needed the opportunity to get a few spare hours to do the trip. On Friday Timberline High won their first 2 games, so my daughter's team was in the championship game at 1pm on Saturday (instead of 11am). There was my shot.
Of course this trip wasn't just around climbing Mount Spokane, my wife and I were also enjoying our time together. We hit the sights around town and then went to downtown Spokane on Friday night. We got back to the hotel at 1am and I was a little wrecked from the fun.
The alarm at 5:30am was unpleasant, but read back in my first paragraph... "I needed to get to the top!". So I got up and off I headed. My head hurt and I was very tired. I don't remember the details, but I somehow made it into a convenience store and got some food and Gatorade. As I neared the peak the road became curvy and the coffee kicked in, so I came out of my mind fog.
I found the lodge I was looking for and started getting ready. There were 4 people there doing the same thing, 2 snowboarders and 2 skiers. I was happy to have them in front of me and they chose the exact line I was thinking.
I setup my skis on my pack like I saw someone in Dean Lord's Facebook photos... one ski on each side with the boots on the ski. This worked for about 100 feet, before it got some damn twisted I couldn't stand it (hey, it looked good in the hotel room). So I took the boots off and put them in the pack and chose to not put the ski tips together. This setup would work perfectly the remainder of the trip.
The group I was following basically headed straight up a black diamond run without any switchbacks. They sucked at kicking steps, but it was nice following the limited steps they provided. I was still feeling the effects of the night before, so I plodded up without taking breaks or photos. Every now and again I would look down and notice I was on a really steep slope without crampons and a slip would end in a long ride. I would remind myself to not look down again. The good news was that the snow was incredible... not one posthole during the entire ascent!
About 100 feet from the summit, one of the skiers from the group ahead of me came down. Then came a snowboarder. The snowboarder face planted in the snow 20 feet from me. It was quite entertaining. In fact, I watched for about 2 minutes until the angel on my shoulder told me "dude, you are very obviously staring at this dude... move on". Shortly after I reached the top.
I took the heavy pack off and scouted the top a bit. Their is a really neat rock house built on top called the Vista House. The front was nearly snow free, but the back had snow nearly all the way to the top of the roof (at least 20 feet high). On some rocks near the house I found the benchmark. This by most accounts is the highest land in Spokane County.
I then switched into my skis. I had only skied once this year, so it was a bit awkward as I headed on the low angle stuff to the top of the black run I came up. Then I went to turn and realized this was going to be a challenging ride down. The snow was bumpy, a bit mushy on the top inch, and it was hard to turn and slow down on. However, I made it down fine and even wished I was more agressive on the upper slopes (once I got down of course).
It was a fun morning. In under 2 hours, I was able to climb a really neat peak and I sweated off my hangover! I was back in the hotel room by 10am.
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