[Now I Fly]

This route had been on my mind for quite some time. Stoked by these two reports, https://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1208332 https://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7988790, and Susan Shih's track, I convinced my buddy (Penguin) to give it a go yesterday. One thing I knew for sure was that a Blue Day was required for Price! We met at the Preston P&R at 7:45 (probably should have met at 6:45). Headed for the Dingford T.H. and were trucking up the trail just before 9:00. I'd been in the area a couple weeks earlier and had scoped out a few crossing logs for Dingford Creek, so just passed Goat Creek we left the trail and headed S-SE on the best fetches of snow we could find. Wasn't long and we were at the crossing.

After crossing Dingford Creek we loosely followed Susan's track. We were happy to have fair traveling snow on the valley floor. I stuck to my spikes, but my buddy was punching through and switched to his snowshoes. As we climbed out of the valley floor the snow quickly disappeared. We both used spikes as the terrain steepened. As previously reported, there are cliffs and steep ground to maneuver through. We both thought more snow would have been (mainly) good.

There are two distinct traverses, the first one is the most prominent.

At its end, we took a line requiring a funky tree scramble. Awkward, but it worked well.

Beyond the tree pitch we took a more direct line up the fall line and in short order we were back in good traveling snow (Near 3,800 ft.) At 4,200 you approach a rock feature. Here we worked right (second traverse), then up, to gain Price's NW ridge. By 4,500 we had both switched to snowshoes, as we got into last week's new snow. Maybe up to a foot (plus) of fresh as we neared the summit. Wasn't super easy traveling at that point. Luckly my buddy was pulling a "Beast Mode" and I was able to draft him and save some juice for the final push. Team work!

Mount Price's summit is amazing, and I was so glad to be there on a clear day!

I really wish we could have hung around a bit longer, but it was 2:45 and we really wanted to be across the creek before dark so time to boogie!

I think we made it back to the Dingford Creek trail, near Goat Creek, by 5:15. Back to the truck by 7:00(+/-). Only 40 minutes (probably less) in head lamps!

Time, 9:25. Elevation gain around 5,000 (+/-). Distance, 10+ miles. Spikes & Snowshoes (carried axe's) And yes, the road still sucks. Cheers B!

[KascadeFlat]

Yeehaw, big views! Nice work.

[puzzlr]

Nice work getting Price in February (even though it's a very unusual one until this week). This answers my question about why you had been up the Myrtle Lake trail recently -- scouting for a log crossing. BTW, it's "Mount Price" per GNIS

[zephyr]

Another excellent report. Thanks for sharing your experience with us. 'Love this part of the ALW. ~z

[Now I Fly]

[ZenithZephyr]

Nice report! Thanks for sharing

[BarbE]

Brian & Bryan in Beast Mode! 👍😆 Great summit shots!