As hikers, we've often considered hiking up Guye Peak, mainly due to it's prominance and close proximity to I-90 at Snoqualmie Pass. It has an appealing pyramidal shape when viewed from eastbound and westbound on I-90. The are 2 main routes; an eastern and western approach. I chose the less technical western approach, using the access path adjacent to the very popular Snow Lakes Trailhead in the Alpental ski area.
The western approach is short (About 2.25 miles each way), but steepish, gaining just of 2000 feet of vertical gain in that distance. The boot path is choked full of boulders and vegitation. At the halfway point to the summit, there's a sign about 30 feet up on a tree, directing the traveler to the left for Snoqualmie Mountain (last weekend's Activation summit), and Guye Peak to the right. The boot path is fairly obvious leading to Guye, with a few cairns marking the route through the next boulder field. Reaching a saddle about 400 feet below the summit, the boot path develops into an obvious trail, which passes a small tarn. There is a lovely small alpine meadow about 100 feet below the summit block.
The summit block is small and exposed on the east, south, and west faces. While I was able to reach out and touch the hight point, I was not comfortable sitting or standing on it with 2000 feet of vertical drop on 3 faces!
So, I found a "seat" about 5 feet below the summit and set-up my Yaesu VX-6R for 146.52. Silence...and more silance. Looking to the west, to the Seattle area, where I was hoping to make contacts, is the impressive long ridgeline of impressive summits, starting from Denny Mountain in the south, up to Chair Peak to the north. The entire ridgeline ranges from 500 to 1500 feet about the summit of Guye Peak (5168 feet). To the south of Denny Mountain, and slightly to the west, lies Granite Mountain at 5600 feet, also higher than Guye Peak. To the north of Guye Peak is the massive Snoqualmie Mountain at 6278 feet, and to my east was Red Mountain and Kendall Peak. Being surrounded by higher peaks, I was effectively blocked from reaching anyone....so I thought. But by some minor miracles of radio wave refraction, refelction and balck magic, I was eventually successful in making (5) contacts on 146.52! It took about 90 minutes to make the 5 contacts.
