A Humbling Snowshoe on Jolly Mountain, WA | Jan 10, 2026

Here's my winter snowshoe mountaineering trip report attempting Jolly Mountain in the Teanaway region of the Washington Cascades. I headed out for a beautiful day of winter hiking and peakbagging, but a comedy of errors turned this "easy" 6,000-foot summit push into a humbling lesson about the grit of the Pacific Northwest winter.

Fresh off a high-altitude expedition to the Colombian Andes, I returned to my backyard thinking a 4,000-foot snowshoe would be a pleasant Saturday outing. I was wrong. Between underestimating the waist-deep postholing and realizing my lunch was still on my kitchen counter, I found myself 300 feet from the summit at my hard turnaround time, surviving entirely on Nerd Clusters and optimism.

This is a story about the 90% of climbing that stays the same whether you stand on the top or not. It’s about the joy of a sunny ridge walk and knowing when to call it quits so you can live to climb another day.

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THE STATS:
Peak: Jolly Mountain (6,447')
Max Elevation: ~6,200'
Location: Teanaway / Salmon La Sac, WA
Distance: 10.4 Miles
Vertical: 3,800 ft (4k to summit)
Conditions: Deep powder

CHAPTERS:
0:00 The Rewind: From Colombia to the Cascades
0:45 Salmon La Sac Trailhead
1:10 10 Steps to Snowshoe Mastery
1:45 The Slog Begins
2:54 Turnaround time Decision
3:19 The Descent
3:58 The Last Mistake: Soloing in Winter
4:28 Sandwich Redemption & Trip Stats

#Mountaineering #PNW #Snowshoeing #JollyMountain #Teanaway #WinterHiking #WashingtonState #DamonUp