Rudderham Mountain

Low tide conditions and terrain hazards were the theme today heading up to Mount Rudderham. Snowpack was very low coverage on road and supportive in tread wells, but became progressively more difficult to negotiate once we got out of the tread wells. I booted it to the trailhead and my friend snowshoed the last quarter mile. The snow coverage was less than 2’ around the lake and a fair bit of exposed brush (slide alder, huckleberry bushes) were an impedance getting up the mountain. The south ridge was mostly snow free up to 3.6k’, then became sporadically snowy out in open areas. Travel was better from 3.6k’ to 4.2k’. The boulder fields were difficult to travel with low snowpack. Many cracks/voids were visible and some sections between the boulders had <1’ deep snow bridges that we avoided due to risk. Travel improved slightly around 5k’, but was still low tide and we occasionally postholed between boulders. Some sections BTL were icy, requiring careful descent on snowshoes/with spikes. Weather was cloudy up to 14:30, then became BRK and gusty. I traveled with a light base layer up to the last 500’ then put on my windbreaker for the remaining elevation.

Quick report