Mount Pugh WA
May 21st, 2023
We are the Mountain Goats and today I climbed Mt Pugh.
This was my 2nd time climbing Mt Pugh, but my first-time climbing Mt Pugh with snow. The trail up to Lake Metam is a nice gradual grade, it took us 45 minutes and we covered 2 miles and 1300' of elevation gain. After you hit the lake the trail up to Stujack Pass steepens through a series of switchbacks. After a few long switchbacks, the switchbacks shorten as you begin to ascend steeply up to the boulder field under Stujack pass. Just before you break out you hit snow around 4500' in the forest. This part of the trail is tricky and route finding is difficult. As you break out into the boulder field, you're blessed with beautiful views of Mt Pugh and Sloan peak. From here the trails zigzags left, but we decided to just go straight up the snowfield above us cutting the trail. At the top of the snowfield, we met back up with the trail, and followed into to the top of Stujack pass.
Looking up towards Stujack Pass
On some pretty crappy snow
Traversing toward Pugh
Looking at Glacier
From here the really crappy part of the trail starts. We traversed and went up a few snowfields, at the top you break out onto the ridge and get stunning views of the Pugh Mastiff. From here you traverse across Stujack ridge, across the snowfields, and atop the rocky ridge. This part of the trail isn't too bad but traversing across the snowy part can be tricky, and with the patchy snow you don't want to fall here. At the top the ridge you begin to traverse right, and here's where you do a bit of scrambling. The scrambling is majority class 2 with a few class 3 moves. By this point you should be around 6500'-6700' but unfortantley you still have the hardest part to do. The trail keeps heading right and you head across multiple snowfields. This is by far the hardest part, as there's a decent amount of exposure. Ice axes are highly recommended. After crossing the snowfields, we followed the trail as it zigzagged up the summit block and within 5 minutes we were on the summit.
Summit time
On the descent
The views from the top are stunning, even though it was a bit hazy the view of Glacier was beautiful. It took us just over 5 hours to summit, the snow up top really slowed us down. Coming down really wasn't bad, the traversing through the snowfields was a bit tricky, but we never felt the need to put on our micro spikes and were able to make it down to the pass with very little difficulty. The rest of the trail was a piece of cake, and we were able to make it to the trailhead in just under 4 hours.
Overall, this is a great early season hike, and great training for bigger mountains. If you're thinking about climbing Mt Pugh in May, be aware that the snow conditions make things significantly more difficult and pack accordingly. Happy Hiking!
