Fay Peak - 7.7.2017
We parked at the end of Mowich Lake Road... the last 15 miles are on an unpaved road.
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Fay Peak from the parking lot.
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Walk into the campground at the end of the road and look for this sign leading to the Lakeshore walk... we are heading for the Patrol Cabin.
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Mowich Lake... on the lakeshore walk... heading for the Patrol Cabin.
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After hiking the lakeshore for one-tenth of a mile we have reached the Patrol Cabin... notice the sign in the lower left corner of the photo... it says the trail is unmaintained... step over the log behind the sign and continue on the unmaintained trail.
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The trail is in reasonable shape considering that it hasn't been maintained for many many years.
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Eventually you will come to this junction... the main trail continues on the left... but we stepped across the creek onto a less traveled path... but the path is still obvious.
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Continuing on a good path and heading for the west ridge of Fay Peak.
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Gaining elevation toward the west ridge of Fay Peak... Mowich Lake behind us... with Tolmie Peak beyond.
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The route is steep in places.
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Our first view of Mount Rainier from Fay's west ridge.
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We have reached the headwall of Fay Peak on the west ridge... hug the headwall and follow a good path around to the right for approximately 50 feet.
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Watch for this down tree... and follow it up through the brush for a very short distance.
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The route opens up very quickly after following the down tree in the previous photo.
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Looking down on Mowich Lake and the parking lot.
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Continuing up the west ridge of Fay Peak.
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Class 2 scrambling on the west ridge of Fay Peak.
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If you get bored with the scrambling... just stop and gaze at Rainier.
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Continuing up on an obvious path.
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Passing by a monolith on the way to the summit of Fay Peak.
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Looking up at the summit area... but we will stay with the path that gets us there via an easier route.
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Moving from the west side of Fay over to the north side... Mother Mountain in the distance.
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Mother Mountain on the left... with the ridge from Fay Peak to Knapsack Pass on the right.
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Nice view of Mount Rainier from the Fay Peak summit (6492').
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The ridge leading from Fay Peak over to Knapsack Pass on the far left... Crescent Mountain and the twin summits of Sluiskin Mountain in the distance.
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A closer look at the many summits of Mother Mountain.
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A closer look at Mt. Rainier.
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Mandatory selfie from the summit of Fay Peak.
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Mowich Lake from the summit of Fay Peak... with low hanging clouds over Puget Sound.
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Looking across the saddle between Mt. Pleasant (left) and Hessong Rock (right) to Mount Rainier.
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Leaving the summit area and starting back down the route we used on the way up.
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Heading down.
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Are we having fun yet?
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On the way down... looking back at the west ridge that we took up to the summit.
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Still heading down... another mile will get us back to the car... the scramble was 3 miles roundtrip, gaining 1651 feet of elevation.
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