West McMillan Spire

West McMillan Spire (8,000ft)

The view from the summit

August 26, 2020, 6:55am – 6:45pm

19 miles, 9500ft gain

I had been taking quite a few rest days after my big summer push to climb all the Colorado hundred highest, Wyoming 13ers, and Montana 12ers. After about a week I was ready to test my legs again and decided on a reasonable day-hike to a Washington Top 200 peak. West McMillan Spire seemed to fit the bill. I’d planned to hike this peak last September, but an early season snow storm scuttled those plans. But the weather looked warm and dry and I happened to be in Seattle in prime summer time, which is unusual.

I left town early and made it to the Upper Goodell Campground about 2.5 hours later. The small lot was almost full, but I found a spot. I quickly started up the trail paralleling Goodell Creek. It was pretty overgrown, and I’m not sure it’s officially maintained. The trail follows an old road grade for a few miles, then turns right and goes directly up the mountain side. It’s extremely steep, with no switchbacks, and at that point is clearly an unmaintained climbers trail.

Looking up from near the main camping area

I was feeling good and the trail was pretty easy to follow. About four hours later I broke out above treeline and descended through a chossy and snowy notch to the main base camp area for the southern pickets. There were a bunch of tents and it looked like at least one guided group that was practicing ropework.

I walked along a broad shoulder following occasional cairns, then crossed a tarn outlet and started hiking up some smooth slabs. Eventually I reached a snowfield on the edge of the Terror Glacier directly below West McMillan Spire. I put on crampons there and unsheathed my whippet. I followed the snowfield up and as it got steeper eventually frontpointed using the dagger of my whippet. I was happy to be wearing hiking boots instead of trail runners for that section.

Before I reached the col west of the summit the snow ran out and I transitioned to rock on the right side. I then scrambled up to the west ridge. From there the ridge was mostly class 2, with a bit of class 3 near the summit. I topped out around 1:30pm and spent some time admiring the view. The rest of the pickets looked much more difficult, and very remote. I picked out Luna peak, the one other peak I’ve done in the pickets. The summit register was unfortunately a soaked mess I didn’t deal with.

Summit panorama

I soon retreated back down, and got in some good boot skiing down the snowfield. Back at camp the guided group was now practicing rappelling down a nearby rock face. When I got to the steep descent in the trees I passed a few groups coming up and going down. They were all doing West Mcmillan spire as overnight trips, and I think it’s probably not super common to do it as a day trip. But I appreciated having an ultralight pack.

I managed to reach the car before dark and drive back home that evening.