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Browsing maps, it looked like two top 100 prominence peaks (Parkview and Elk) could easily be attained in a single day. Nevertheless, I set out a little too late for two given my allotted time and a locked gate 1 mile short of the expected trailhead for Elk. As for Parkview, I began the trail from south of the Willow Creek Pass at 8:40 am in very warm weather. The road was easy enough to follow, and snow-free until around 10,300'. After about 45 minutes of hiking, I contemplated ascending directly up the Northeast Ridge, but followed the road to treeline instead southwest in the drainage below Parkview (photo on right). The slope to the NE ridge from here looked like the most viable alternative, and so I began the ascent of the spontaneously crumbling scree pile. It was a slow and patince-testing ascent on terribly steep and loose scree. The mountain was deteriorating on its own as if invisible bighorn sheep were trotting along its flanks.
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Eventually, I made the top of the slope to the ridge and continued a slow pace for a few minutes while my body adjusted to flat stable terrain again. I ended up .4 miles from the summit on the Northeast Ridge and began the first hiking on snow. There was a brisk wind and I put on a shell for the first time. The going along the ridge was fairly decent, with only a few short spots of post-holing. The view from the top was as good as expected, with all other ranges being considerably distant and dramatic in profile. I opted to descend the more gentle ridge rather than my ascent route and found a gully that descended straight to a switchback at 10,500'. I arrived back at the trailhead at 11:30, with what would have been ample time to bag Elk Mountain, though after a drive up the roads to Elk Mountain, I arrived at a hunter-congested spot 1.7 miles from its summit at 1:30. Needing to be home at 4:00 made this an impossibility. Radial Mountain is still on my interest list, so a return to get Elk with it eased my mind a bit.
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