Lennox Mtn warm spring climb

Climbing "The route from the west."

Steve and I hit the trailhead around 8:00, armed with Klenke's good route description, and it was already getting warm. The forecast was for 80 deg. We decided to take our chances with the creek crossing and were soon there. We headed upstream a short distance and found an official crossing spot with a log that had been chopped to provide traction. We got to the Bare Mtn junction that goes up and left, and headed straight toward Bear lake. The trail gets a bit brushy, but not too bad.

We missed the fisherman's trail turn off, and came out into a rock basin lined with cliffs. I was remembering that Steve had said "there wouldn't be anything remotely technical" and this wasn't quite matching that description. We doubled back and soon found the fisherman's trail. After ascending moderate, open slopes to the adit, we continued on, straight up. Take note: the trail heads left after the adit, and it offers a fast, brush-free ascent complete with a rope to help get up a steep section.

We bashed through some slide alder and small pine trees that were annoying in the heat. Then we came to a steep 15 foot wall. A ramp in the middle offered reasonable third class passage. We were soon to Bear lake.

After a break, we scrambled to the saddle north of the lake, and dropped down onto snow for the first time. The snow was getting soft as we traversed toward the low spot in the ridge, losing almost 400'. This resulted in a total elevation gain of close to 4600' for the day. From the low spot, we mainly stayed on top of the ridge, dropping to the other side a couple of times. Then we went below Pt 5695 on the west side trying to minimize the elevation gain. The ridge was mainly snow free due to the low snow fall.



We headed back down, and stayed on the fisherman's trail all the way from Bear lake to the adit. When exiting the clearing, look for an old mining cable that leads to the trail as you enter the trees.

The heat was a factor, and it took us about 11 hr car-to-car, 10 mi RT, 4600'. I carried an extra liter the rest of the summer.

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