May 22nd, 2004

On a cool, rainy Saturday morning, MaryAnn and I left for Dickerman Mt. Our original plan was to go up Dickerman and try to do the traverse to Twin Peaks. In leaving two hours later than anticipated in inclement weather pretty much killed that plan. We reduced our objective to Dickerman itself.

I had not been up Dickerman before, but in talking to friends I was told that there is a hiking path to the top, though at this time of year there would be some snow. This would be a good opportunity for MaryAnn to practice some snow climbing skills and ice ax arrest.

On the drive down the rain kept getting worse and at about 10 miles from the trailhead on the Mountain Loop Highway, with the wipers going full tilt I waited for MaryAnn to bring up plan B, which was to go to Seattle and goof off for the day. Instead she said, “If it’s like this at the trailhead we can still hike up for a while…” Am I lucky or what.

Amazingly, when we pulled into trailhead parking lot it had stopped raining. We slung our packs on our backs at 10:45 and headed up the trail. After 2 or 3 miles we finally hit the snowline at about 4000’ and were able to leave the monotony of the trail behind us. We headed up a moderately steep gully in the direction of the summit. Running into a party coming down, they assured us of good glissading above. There was a couple of guys descending over a steep rocky side of the gully into a nice patch of slide alder. I made a mental note that we didn’t want to take that route down.

Above the gully was 1500’ vertical feet of the most pleasant snow climbing. The snow was just soft enough for one easy kick to make a step, but firm enough to keep from postholing. Sparse trees and moderate steepness let us push upwards without having to trudge. The only problem was that the poor visibility was getting worse. We had a Green Trails 15 min map along which really doesn’t help much other than in general terms. The compass came out and we started shooting bearings and flagging a few trees so we could follow a route back to the proper gully that would lead us back to the trail.

At about 300’ below the summit MaryAnn was running out of steam. I climbed some moderately steep snow and decided that she could stay put if she wanted. She thought this was a good idea and got comfortable. I shot another bearing in the direction I thought the summit was and ran up there. Eight minutes later my altimeter told me I was there. Mindful of the cornices on top I sucked down a GU and had a drink. I’m sure the views were spectacular but by this point the visibility was down to less than 100’. I turned around and followed my course back to MaryAnn. We then made our way back down the slope, retrieving our markers and finally to a couple nice glissades.

Before we exited the snowslopes we found a nice steep side of the gully to practice ice ax arrest. We did all the different scenarios until we were good and wet. Convinced that MaryAnn’s new ice ax had been properly broken in we descended the rest of the gully and back to the trail. We were back to the car by 5:30 and staring at a nice steak at Outback by 7pm. It only rained for about 30 minutes on us the entire hike and climb. MaryAnn got some great practice arresting, kicking steps and plunge stepping. She was still beaming on Monday.

The Dickerman Mountain trailhead is 4.5 miles east of Silverton on the Mountain Loop Highway. The hike is 4.5 miles long with an elevation gain of 3923’ from the trailhead. There is trail that goes all the way to the top so go early in the season and pick your own path. It is reported that the alpine traverse to Twin Peaks is nice also.