McClellan Butte 2010

There was a day hike to McClellan Butte on Saturday, July 3, as part of the preparation for the August High Adventure outing to Lake of the Angels in the Olympics. McClellan Butte is a prominent peak southeast of North Bend, prominent from I-90. The McClellan Butte Trail gains about 3,300 feet of elevation in 4.6 miles of maintained trail, ending with a short distance of exposed scrambling to the summit. With the cool summer, the upper reaches of the hike were in snow on steep side slopes. The summit block, however, was exposed and bare. In addition to conditioning, the value of this hike was to coach on basic rock technique and judge the ability of the participants to handle a certain amount of exposure. The first half of the standard route travels through a mixture of old-growth and second-growth forest, and some of the largest-diameter evergreen trees in Washington State can be found on the mountain slopes. The second-half of the standard route travels past at least five avalanche gullies, all of which require extra caution when traversing during snow-covered periods. The final 0.6 miles of the McClellan Butte Trail circles around the southwest side of the mountain ridge to the rocky summit block, which calls for cautious climbing. - GS

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