Amabilis Mountain

We drove out to the Cabin Creek SnoPark to hike/snowshoe up to the top of Amabilis Mountain and take the loop option back down to the Y. Overall 10.5 miles with 2,100 ft of gain.  The route was groomed up to the top turn around spot. The day started out with some clouds, but turned into beautiful blue skies before we reached the top for the views. We went up wearing micro spikes and staying to the far side of the groomed trail. Coming down, we wore our snowshoes where the loop was not groomed and continued with snowshoes below the Y as the snow had warmed up and gotten sloppy.

View spot along the route before the top. Great views of the Chikamin Peaks, Mt Hinman and Mt Daniel behind Kachess Lake. From before we reached this spot until after completing the loop and re-joining the groomed trail below the Y, we didn't see any other people. 

zoom of Mt Hinman, Mt Daniel and Kachess Lake

zoom of Chikamin Peaks

We took the side trail towards the top of Amabilis, nice view of the south end of Kachess Lake. It was a bit windy up on the top, so we came back here for our lunch break after taking photos on the top of Amabilis.

Pano from the top of Amabilis Mountain.

Followed the rock on top for a better view of the north end of Lake Kachess

zoom of Mt Hinman, Mt Daniel and the north end of Kachess Lake

zoom to the tippy top of Mount Stuart to the northeast beyond the ridge

zoom of Mt Rainier to the southwest

View towards Keechelus Lake and the Snoqualmie Pass area from the groomed turn around area.

On the back side of the loop we had better views of Keechelus Lake and the peaks at Snoqualmie Pass (zoomed in a bit). Pinkham Peak, Silver Peak, Mt Catherine, Granite Mountain and the Chikamin Peaks

 

Amabilis Mtn Snowshoe

We drove out to Amabilis Mtn to snowshoe and avoid the risk of avalanches today. It is 9.5 miles round trip to the top of Amabilis, we did 8 miles round trip with 1,550 ft of elevation gain. We were the first ones on the trail today, and did not see any others until we were finishing our lunch break and about to head back.

The trail had been groomed up to the Y (about 2.5 miles from the start) on the weekend, but there were several inches of fresh snow over the trail. Looking back at our tracks.

Quite a bit of snow since we were here a month ago.

It snowed most of the time we were snowshoeing up the trail. We had some local views.

A frozen branch

From the Y up, the snow was a bit deeper.

We stopped for a lunch break and decided to turn around about 3/4 mile from the top. 

I love how the forest looks in fresh snow.

The sun started to break out of the clouds as we were returning to the beginning of the trail.

 

Amabilis Mountain Snowshoe

We drove up to the Cabin Creek SnoPark, east of Snoqualmie Pass, to snowshoe up Amabilis Mtn. To go to the top is a 9.5 mile round trip. Because the trail was only groomed for 2.5 miles and we broke trail in deep snow for 1.5 miles, we only did 8 miles round trip today with 1,600 ft of gain.  We didn't see any other snowshoers and a few skiers out this morning.

We made sure to stay to the far right of the groomed trail, staying off the skiers area.

Most of the trails are in the forest, it was beautiful with fresh snow on this mostly cloudy day.

The green moss and lichen on the trees was beautifully set off by all the white snow.

The sun tried to break through the clouds for a brief moment.

There were some trees bent over the road from all the heavy snow. We shook the snow off the trunks to help them stand up off the route.

Gorgeous views even in the thick clouds.

At the "Y" after 2.5 miles, this route was no longer groomed and had lots of fresh snow. We saw where there had been a previous track, but it didn't last very long.

As the clouds moved around, we could see a little ways across the valley.

We probably sunk about 12" breaking trail with our snowshoes on.

Another sun break

The clouds would lift a bit, 

and then sink back down. We found an open spot to the side, to stop and take a lunch break.

After lunch, it started to snow, and it snowed our entire time back down to the car.

 

Mount Amabilis Snowshoe

We drove over to the Cabin Creek Nordic Ski Area to snowshoe up to Mount Amabilis,  we took another route down to make a lollipop loop, 11 miles with 2,090' of gain.
We were respectful of the groomed trails and stayed off to the far side of the groomed ski tracks.

The majority of this trail is on closed forest roads, mostly in the trees.
This was one of the widest pinwheels I have seen (about 12'' across)

As we went up the higher sections, we began to see Mt Rainier to the south,

zoom of Rainier

View of the peaks at Rampart Ridge and the far end of Kachess Lake from a viewpoint near the top.

Near the top, we left the groomed trail broke trail to the summit.

We had to be careful of the cornices on the summit, cornices framing Kachess Lake

View from the top of Mount Amabilis to the northwest












pano to the north from atop Mount Amabilis

To the south Mount Rainier













Back on the groomed trail, this viewpoint is near where the groomer turns around.

View from the end of the groomed trail

We went cross country to connect with another closed road that would eventually join the route we came up on.

There was a nice open area with a view toward Keechelus Lake and Snoqualmie Pass area.




















photo showing the route we took today