Distance: 10.1 mi.
Elevation Gain: 3200 ft.

We reached Chinook Pass at 9 AM and took the Pacific Crest Trail south. There were still several patches of steep snow on the trail but for the most part there were flat boot tracks to follow. We had ice axes but didn’t pull them out quite yet. At about 5200′ before reaching Dewey Lake, we went off trail to the right and continued southeast along game trails toward Dewey Peak.

When we reached the northwest ridge of Dewey we climbed uphill toward the summit on and off snow. We brought out ice axes for one particularly steep snow slope. We crossed over the ridge to the east and west several times following goat trails until the we reached final summit ridge of Dewey.

We found a nice flat area to put on our harnesses and pull out the rope. From here we crossed a steep scree gully with some decent handholds on the side to help us along. We climbed over a short brushy area and then turned left up another steep scree gully. At the top of the gully we slung a tree to make a belay station and Craig climbed the short 4th class pitch. Approach shoes/mountaineering boots were helpful for the exposed climb, which was briefly vertical on the arete. Craig found a few suitable spots to place protection until he reached the slabby ramps below the summit that were easy to walk up.

He belayed me up and then after a brief snack we scratched our heads over the fact that there was only a belay station down the other side of the summit. I had left my pack at the bottom of our climb so we ultimately decided to make a new belay station on a large rock outcrop to the west of the summit.

After rappelling back to our belay station we downclimbed the scree slope and retraced our steps until we found a place on the north ridge of Dewey where we could descend left (east) toward the saddle between Dewey and Seymour. The saddle had a small patch of snow but otherwise the route was snow-free. We climbed the east ridge of Seymour until the scramble. There were a few third class moves on nice blocky steps (or as Craig called them on-route, “chonky ledges”) and then we walked along the ridge, generally on the left (south) side.

We reached a brief 3rd class downscramble and then had to traverse along a crappy steep scree slope until we regained the west ridge of Seymour. The final ridge was a walk up and we weren’t sure which of two bumps was the true summit so we climbed them both. We were getting a bit over-sunned so we retraced our steps until we found a shady spot on the ridge and had a celebratory beer.

After returning to the saddle between Dewey and Seymour we dropped to the left (north) and followed several game trails through the brushy slope until we met our old off-trail GPS to head back to the PCT. We had to climb back to the intersection with the Naches Loop trail and then had a slow descent back to the trailhead. The snow slopes on the trail had become more packed down and icy with several parties walking across them and it looked like a couple people had slipped and fallen down the snow slopes. We probably would have benefited from having the ice axes out but kept them stashed away and managed to stay on our feet. We reached the car at 6:30 PM.

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Recommended brew: Laurelwood Workhorse IPA

Gear Used:

• Aluminum crampons (not used)
• Aluminum ice axe
• Approach shoes (Vanessa)
• Day pack
• Glacier glasses
• GPS
• Harness
• Helmet
• Mountaineering boots (Craig)
• 60 m half-rope
• Small set of nuts and tricams, slings, cordelette left as rap anchor
• Trekking poles
• Water filter

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