Does anyone know if the West Route (Hunt Creek Rd.) trail head is accessible by vehicle yet? Can any of you Priest Lakers still see snow on the crest?

I can still see snow on the local hills in Spokane!

Ha! Good Point. I'm mostly wondering how close we can drive to the trail head. I'll find out pretty soon.

So, we climbed Chimney Rock yesterday. There was too much snow to drive to the trail head - we actually got stuck. Hiked up the road anyway, and from the trail head, the entire approach was a snow slog. We had the place to ourselves. I had never been up there with so much snow. It made for a very memorable trip. We were the first entries of the year in the summit log book. There was even some snow on the summit.


Andrew with Chimney Rock in the distance.


Top of the Roothaan saddle on the approach.


From the top of pitch 1. You can see our boot pack in the large snowfield on the right.


Hiking back towards Mt. Roothaan (in the background). The climbers gully to the saddle was in the shade but didn't freeze up thankfully.


Heading home. At the base of the climbers trail up Mt. Roothaan.