Chiwawa Mountain sits at the head of Spider Meadow in the Glacier Peak Wilderness Area. On October 9, 10 & 11, 1999, Doxey Kemp, Mario Moreno, Seth Pollack & Doug Hagen took a trip up there.

The trail follows Phelps Creek for five miles through the forest. A big thanks to all those who worked to save these trees from the sawblade a few years ago. Thank you!

The trees thin out as the trail gently climbs. Finally we reached that almost mythical backpackers paradise, Spider Meadow. None of us had visited this place before and we were duly impressed. Being that our visit occured in October, we missed the famous wildflowers and the infamous mosquitos.

We followed the trail past some campsites, on that weekend home to some boy scouts. We referred to our maps, discussing the trail ahead, trying to discern a path up an impossible looking rock face. We just couldnt believe a trail could cling to the side of that cliff! In fact, we’re STILL not sure it really goes up that sucker!

At the top of the wall, we set up our tents at a designated campsite perched on a knoll. We felt quite wealthy to be there, good friends rich with the view of the valley we'd just hiked, quite fortunate to be there when the larch trees displayed their golden autumn leaves.

After a cold night we arose to a fairly clear day & climbed up the gentle & narrow Spider Glacier to Spider Gap. From the gap one takes in a sweeping view of the Glacier Peak Wilderness, down to the Lyman Lakes, over to Fortress Mtn and out to impressive Bonanza Mtn. A spectacular sight.

From the gap we traversed down and over to the Lyman Glacier. The idea was to practice ice climbing on the steep glacier. Unfortunately it had been snowing the past couple of days, the first snow of the year, making for very unconsolidated snow & no way of knowing where it was ice, snow or rock. Plus we couldn’t even find any ice to get a screw in. So we climbed up to our comfort level & then just played around, practicing anchoring techniques, knots & silly things like that. It was such a wonderful place & great day that no one minded the lack of a summit.

Back at camp we had a relaxing evening. Clouds moved in so it didn’t get as cold as the previous night. Four inches of snow overnight made the next morning great for early winter photography.

Descending the trail that clings to rock wall was a little tricky & slippery but went without a hitch. The trail out was empty as it was a Monday. Other than his freeze dried dinners the only other food Seth brought was one large pizza. By this point of the trip he was forcing it on the rest of us & I’m happy to say we polished the thing off within 1 mile of the trailhead.

I can heartily recommend any portion of this trip. Spider Meadow is an inspiring destination itself. The view from the knoll is worth the climb. Going to Spider Gap opens up a vista to an entire other area that’s just beautiful. Chiwawa via the Lyman Glacier looks like a great climb. Plus there’s a whole host of other possibilities such as a day trip to Cloudy Peak. In addition there’s a loop trail of 45 miles or so that’s described in the 100 hikes book that looks like it’d be a blast. These photos, hopefully, will do a bit of justice to the beauty of the area.

On this trip, Mario was inspired to coin the term "G.P. Dubya" for the Glacier Peak Wilderness. We laughed at the time, and we continue to call it that now. The four of us will never forget this incredible area and our visit to Chiwawa Mtn.