Rattlesnake traverse

With our indian summer continuing to stretch into mid-october, I was able to get out for yet another gorgeous fall day in the mountains.  With some school exams the following week, I needed something close to town and reasonably short to allow sufficient study time as well.  The rattlesnake traverse fit the bill perfectly – super close to town, short and easy bike shuttle and reasonably short time commitment. 

the route, from stuart peak

I’ve done a mosquito to sanders to murphy to point six loop in the spring on skis but never the full traverse w/ stuart so I was excited about the route.  Not wanting to endure a very chilly bike ride that morning, I stashed a bike at snowbowl and drove down to the ravine TH, figuring the ride would be more enjoyable in the afternoon sun.  I felt slow and groggy the first couple of miles headed up to stuart peak but just plodded along at a casual pace, reaching the top in about 2:15, where I chatted with a few folks before setting out for mosquito (they were surprised to hear I was headed all the way to snowbowl, but I informed them that mileage wise, stuart is actually already half way from the ravine TH to snowbowl).

one of many nice ski lines between stuart and mosquito

I bumped into a solo backpacker along the way but otherwise the stretch to mosquito was uneventful.  I took my time descending the NW ridge, stopping to scope the entrance to each of the couloirs that drop down to glacier lake (I’ve skied 2 of them this past spring but am excited to return someday to ski them all in a day – 5 prominent ones appear to go clean).  I re-joined the trail for a short stretch before reaching the saddle and continuing up the broad S ridge of sanders peak. 

sanders (R) and murphy (L) from mosquito

first of many couloirs on mosquito's N face

Despite the slow travel, I decided to stick to the ridge proper between sanders and murphy, which served up some decent and some not-so-decent scrambling, including a short but stellar exposed section of low 5^th class terrain.  It would certainly be faster and likely more enjoyable to bypass a good portion of this ridgeline on the south (and keep the difficulty at class 3 or below).  It was nice however to get eyes on a few prominent ski lines that drop N off this ridge to upper finley lake for future reference.

looking W to murphy from west sanders pt.

from murphy, a look back to sanders peak

I reached the summit of murphy nearly 2 hours since sanders (slow!), and was nearly out of water.  The next stretch of ridgeline to point six was fun to see without snow for my first time and nice easy terrain in comparison to the sanders-murphy ridgeline.  I descended snowbowl via high roller to the beargrass highway to lower paradise.  Once at the bike, I was disappointed in myself in not having also stashed water, but a quick and thirsty ride had me down the road and back to the truck, amazed at how close to town this worthwhile wilderness loop resides. 

Approx. splits:  2:15 stuart, 3:45 sanders, 5:30 murphy, 7:20 bike

Stats:  approx. 23mi/7k vert in 7:20 car-bike at casual/moderate pace

Rose: beautiful day, not flaring up my knee

Thorn: slow travel and a lot of loose rock on the sanders to murphy ridge line

Bud: linkup of all the N couloirs on mosquito peak