Huckleberry Mountain WA

July 22nd, 2024

Hi we're the Mountain Goats and today we climbed Huckleberry Mountain! Our original plan was to hop on the PCT and see how far we could get, with climbing Alaska Mountain as our original plan. The trail up to Kendall Catwalk was pleasant. We were able to get up the long switchbacks on the slopes of Kendall Peak before the heat was unbearable. From here the trail flattens as you traverse away from Kendall Peak towards Kendall Catwalk. This was my first time seeing the Catwalk, and the view was stunning. From here the trail continues heading left towards Gravel and Ridge Lakes. As you get closer, you begin to drop a few hundred feet down to the lakes. At this point you are 6 miles in and have just arrived at Gravel and Ridge Lakes. We stopped here and took a break at Ridge Lake. 

On the catwalk

Prettyyyy

Some real nice views

From Ridge Lake the trail very slowly ascends to the ridgeline right below Alaska Mountain. You only gain 300 vertical feet in the next 2 miles making this part of the hike very pleasant. From the top of the ridgeline Alaska Mountain is only 200 vertical feet above, making it an easy peak to quickly bag. From here we made the bad decision to keep going and try to climb Huckleberry Mountain. From the ridgeline the trail immediately begins to drop down towards Joe Lake. You drop down 600 vertical feet through a series of switchbacks down to around 5000' feet. At this point you are around 300' vertical feet above Joe Lake and begin heading back up towards Huckleberry Mountain. The trail begins to wrap around Huckleberry Mountain towards its East Ridge. At around 5,500' feet and 9 miles in we got off the PCT and began bushwacking towards Huckleberry Mountain. This is when the hike became unbearable due to the mosquitoes. The whole bushwack up to the summit block mosquitoes were constantly swarming us. After walking past tiny tarns, and fighting through some trees we broke out onto a skree field towards the upper Eastern Ridge. From here we headed up towards the ridge where it met with the Huckleberry Mountain summit block. 

There she lies

Blue and I scouting out the route

Huckleberry Mountain is a legit scramble. There are some legit class 4 parts with serious exposure. The scramble begins with a finger traverse, after getting up this the toughest part is next, you have to get on top of a rock shelf, with cliffs on both sides of you, falling here would be fatal. Above this you're met with a repel station so you know you're on the route. From here the scramble gets a lot easier although it's still all class 3 as you keep heading up and staying away from the cliffs. After gaining around 200' vertical feet, we arrived at the summit (kinda). Unfortunately, to get to the true summit (20 feet above us) you have to rope up, and as we didn't have any actual gear we called it a day. The view from the summit wasn't all that crazy. Chickman and Lemah kinda block all the Alpine Lake Peaks. 

Steep!

Summit, kinda…

We carefully descended, using a lot of downclimbing on our backs, and were able to make it down without any hicups. We then promptly got eaten alive by mosquitoes as we headed back towards the PCT. Once on the PCT we only had 9 miles to go and started the long slog to the car. 

Blue and I heading out

Overall Huckleberry Mountain isn't a pleasant hike due to the mosquitoes. I ended up with 30+ bites on each arm after dowsing myself with bug juice. I learned there is a reason no one does this peak, and I wouldn't recommend others doing it. If you do it, understand even the false summit is a legit rock scramble so proceed with extreme caution. Happy hiking!

Final Stats: 20 Miles - 5000' elevation gain - 11:52 Car to Car