Mount Skokomish and Mount Stone – bagging two peaks in a single day!

False Prophets, Angels, Pearly Gates, and Peak Bagging

A personal reflection on scrambling Mount Skokomish and Mount Stone. Scrambling being that bridge, if you will, between hiking and climbing. Basically off-trail travel, often times with the intent of gaining a summit peak, but without using ropes to protect climb. Though, ropes are used to protect certain situations and/or party members.

Peggy Goldman, in her guide book, Washington Scrambles 2nd Edition, describes Mount Stone as doable in one day, or turn into an overnight and do Mount Skokomish the next day. After scrambling Mt Henderson the week prior, and looking at Skokomish, we both wanted to do it. But we also wanted Mt. Stone. What do do? Scramble both of course. Since the approach on the Putvin trail is nothing less than a steep and not all that interesting trail, aside from the area known as the headwall. We figured, why not just take care of both peaks at once and be done.

So what about the False Prophets, Angels, Pearly Gates?

Frankly, I haven’t a clue. Maybe it’s something to do with Carl Putvin, the trapper who lived at the Lake of Angels in the early 1900s and perished along the trail. Accounts I found online are not consistent, other than he perished alongside the trail. The Lake is situated in an area known as Valley of Heaven. I can’t help but think the area names have something to do with Putvin’s life and death.

Maybe it’s all a metaphor for scrambling. The false prophet is the sometimes incomplete beta and gps tracks that lead one down the wrong or sketchy path. The valley of heaven being that feeling you have after a successful summit and safe return to the car. The lake of angels, well maybe that refers to the fact you need a few angels, or good luck while in the exposed and sometimes sketchy terrain. And as far as the pearly gates (St Peter’s Gate, officially) are concerned – other than the name of the saddle along the Putvin Traverse, it’s a place or state of being best avoided while out Scrambling.

Stats and Trip Report

For someone who is reasonably fit, this is a very doable day trip to bag both peaks. We are certainly not ultra runners and don’t move at break neck speed. But we keep a consistent and steady pace.

The trail to Lake of Angels is about 3.75 miles. It’s steep, rocky and rooted in all but the first 1.5 miles, although that section is not flat either. We made the lake, watered up, ate a snack and were moving again in 3 hours. We made the summit of Mount Stone in 5 hours, a 5,000′ gain in 5 miles. After eating lunch number one, we descended back to the lake, got water and continued up to Mount Stone. We left the lake around 1:15PM. I was on the summit of Stone at 3:10PM. After eating another lunch number two a little ways down, we began the full descent at 4PM. We were back at the car at 8:08PM, a mere 14 hours after starting. A total of 12 miles and about 6,800′ gain.

I wrote a fairly detailed trip report for both Mount Skokomish and Mount Stone in Peak Bagger. Here are a few highlights of each peak

Mount Skokomish

The scramble up Mount Skokomish begins at the saddle found above Lake of Angels. It’s a pretty easy route to find up to the saddle. From here, one contours around the east and south slope of the peak. The slope is a lot of loose scree and low vegetation. We chose to contour or traverse on a level even with the saddle and consistently go up. Ultimately we gained the transition area of upper rock and lower scree/talus slopes, and followed that to a point where we scrambled up rotten Olympic choss rock. Ultimately the rocky scramble turns to cliff on the south and going right/north gets sketchy, exosed and dangerous. Find a spot to go over the ridge to the west. Looking over and up, should bring into view a nice, sort of, boot path to the summit with not too much exposure or risk. All relevant to ones skill of course More like class 2 scrambling. Certainly better than trying to cling to rotten flaky rock on a 50+ degree slope. On the return we dropped down the big talus below the scree. We traversed a vegetated slope. Honestly, we should have dropped even further. This would have made the climb up less sketchy and better for anyone not skilled at keeping balance and footing on loose scree.

Mount Stone

Typically one scrambles the more difficult peak first. This allows one to be fresh on the most challenging and technical terrain as well as get the hard one done, in case both become too much for any reason, conditioning, time constraints (daylight), weather etc. However, our approach on this day was to get the easy one (all relative) first, knowing it was still a big challenge, and with some uncertainty about how technical Mount Stone would be, and if we would even be successful. We were almost approaching Mount Stone as a exploratory scramble thinking it might not go. Ultimately, it went and a summit was achieved.

We left the water fall at lake of Angels and took a direct boot path/game trail that intersected with the main boot path headed to the Pearly Gate. This was a steep, loose path. Just as the cliff band was approached on the left, we found an obvious booth path. Similar to Skokomish, we contoured up and across. Lots of loose stuff. We found a spot where steps were set into more of a drift vegetative landscape next to scree/talus marbles. We took this path but also tried to avoid it at times because more traffic here is causing erosion, which seems like it will end up as just loose rock also. And like Skokomish, we found a better path on the return through talus. It would be a better path up. Eventually the boot path contours around and goes up a couple narrow chutes. This felt like we were gaining the summit but it dropped us into a bowl with snow fields. Easy to scramble above any snow. The haystack summit block in view and somewhat ominous. The route is described in a photo caption below.

Gear Used

I tried to keep my load light. Around 20lbs. My friend carried less. I used my Hyperlight Mountain Gear Summit Pack. I carried the typical emergency gear, first aid kit, a 30 meter static line, a small number of slings, carabiners, and my light harness. Helmet, trekking poles, food and water. I wore my Hoka Speedgoats instead of boots. I’m finding these to be fantastic for rock scrambling. I’m more nimble and in many cases have far better traction. And when I’m tired on a descent or return trail, I don’t find myself stumbling. My feet are much happier.

Conclusion

Two very worthy and doable scrambles. Stone is sometimes included in the Putvin traverse, which is an off-trail traverse from Upper Lena Lake to the Pearly Gate, down the Putvin trail. I think a reasonable double peak day for someone with reasonable fitness and the right mindset. Mostly it’s about endurance and consistency.