Centralia Mountain 04/03/2005

Daylight savings time had its usual effect of a later trailhead arrival time - 9:00 a.m. today. The Ranch Ponds at 7,800' to the north of Centralia in the Golden Gate State Park seemed like the most reasonable access point. I had been to this exact spot before in May '04 fishing with Leah possessing no thought that I'd be returning there specifically (though perhaps nearby to hike Ralston Roost or Frazer Mtn). So with the idea of acquiring another 1,000'+ prominence peak and finishing off the Jefferson County 1k+ list, here I was. I thought Mount Tom would be in the picture for the day also, but I only had 3.5 hours to get up and down, so the difficulty of bushwhacking and postholing would factor into that possibility. The start of the route up was pleasant, with plenty of room to move around (photo on right) and dry ground. Soon the vegetation thickened and the battle had begun. Snow gradually took over the dry floor and a scramble avoided trees for a hundred yards or so.
	At 8,900' a clearing revelead the snow-rich terrain above (photo on left). The next half-mile would take over an hour when all was said and done due to waist-deep postholing in deadfall. The seemingly branchless dead trees underneath the snow had an uncontrollable slipperyness. This coupled with "crevassed" boulders on approximately the final 300 vertical feet was unexpected. Finally, the summit revealed itself long after the needed time to traverse over to Mount Tom in yet more north-facing postholing misery. The descent was not much faster as this is a tedious route in this much snow. Averaging .8 mph for the duration of the hike, I was surprised what a 9'er could throw at me. To date, this year has often been an exercise learning that snow hikes completely below treeline can be a lot more draining than otherwise.