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5,050 Pass from Dosewallips Road

First snow trip of the year, third time I have been in snow this deep on snowshoes. Took advantage of a short weather window between storms and rising freezing level.

Dave Schultz Dave Schultz
November 11, 2021
  • Road suitable for all vehicles

  • The last 2 mi of the road is on gravel, more and deeper pot holes than on previous trips. Going slow and carefully was fine for my small car. I'll bring a saw next time  in case a small fallen tree needs to be cleared. The local folks seem to do a good job keeping the road clear. 

    The first major snow of  year, with 40" in the last 10 days per the nearby Buckinghorse snotel site.  With out a solid base voids in the snow are a concern, we both managed to find one in the same area descending thru waste deep snow.  We where able extract ourselves using poles parallel to the snow surface. Had 1 shovel, we did not use. 

    Managed to walk by the beginning of the trail, not as well marked as previous trips. A few trees down across the trail, easy to navigate around.

    Listing Midweek and lack of a third person made this a private trip. If short notice midweek trips are a possibility for you,  e mail me and I will add you to my contact list.  

7 am start, back to the cars at 4:30.  Turned around at 4730 ft 6.5 hours up ~ 3 hours down.  Short breaks thru out the day for clothing, gear changes,  food, water and stretch out my cranky knee on the last 1500 feet of  the steep decent

Snow started at 2300 ft. We put snow shoes on at 3k ft, took them off at 2800 ft on our return. The last 280 feet of elevation gain took over 1 hour, often using poles to drag snow in front  and pulling into the step building a platform to get a bit higher and further for the next step. We turned around at the beginning of the flatter area before the pass.  Snow shoe pentation between 18" to 30" above 4k feet.  Consistent snow depth over 3 feet above 3k ft. snow drifts to 5 feet up high.  The top 3" of dry snow not well bonded to snow below. 

We enjoyed views of Puget Sound, and the Hood Canal, and surrounding mountains to the South.  Great to get out into the new snow.