Chair Point peaks 2018

We explore the mountains east of Riggins, including Chair Point lookout.

May 12, 2018
Team: me
Peaks:
- Peak 6030
  - 0.8 miles, 347' gain, 0:26 car-to-car
  - Class 2
  - Lists of John
- Peak 6553 and Chair Point, 6980'
  - 5.4 miles, 2197' gain, 2:47 car-to-car
  - Class 2 (but road access possible to lookout)
  - Lists of John (6553)
  - Lists of John (Chair Point)

Note: click images to see a larger version in a new window

The drive up the Salmon is always amazing, and today was no disappointment: full, fast, and muddy brown. After turning off at Allison Creek, it's a steady, twisty climb on a dirt/graveled road in very good shape. The climb takes you from 1850' to 5700'. It's about 10 miles, and takes more than half an hour. And that's if you don't stop and stare a lot. My original plan was to do Chair first, but I ran into snow. So turned around to Squaw Saddle.
From Squaw Saddle, it's a short climb to Peak 6030. Not a lot of gain, not a lot of distance. And following paths left from creating a fire break.
The two rocks appear to be pretty much the same height. I did both, but chose the distant one as the highest.
Wow. I think that's Riggins down there. If you zoom in you can see the canyon followed by the road up Windy Gap.
Summit shot.
And there's the next objective of the day, Peak 6553. On the other side of the saddle.
As I got near the truck, I spotted something in the trees. Hmmm. Gonna have to try to find this weather station on the Interwebz.
Map
I walked right by the truck, across the road, and started up my next peak. Again, looks like the start of a fire break.
I let Ruby roam. Today that didn't work out well because she found something dead and rotten to roll in. You might note the slight black tone- she pretty much buttered herself up. Then there's the matter of the abandoned shelter here. And half a broken binocular. These things always speak to me, but I usually can't hear their stories.
Up through the woods, there weren't many views. But the summit is sort of a big patch of sagebrush. So there's the lookout on Chair Peak.
Zoomed in. I debated. Snow. Distance. Gain. Time. Return plans. Wet feet. Weather. Oh, what the hell.
So as expected, the north ridge had a lot more snow than the south. There's the road. On your map, this is Deep Saddle at about 6000'.
We followed more fire break for a while. That disappeared and we were left with grunting up a very steep hillside that started accumulating more and more snow. And then, there's the tower through the trees.
We wandered about the tower and decrepit 'cabin' (now serving as a storage shed and chipmunk excretory). It had been hard work getting up here, and I was happy to have it over.
The stairway was blocked by a locked gate.
But then I looked at the GPS to discover that the lookout is NOT the highpoint. Dang! 1/3 mile of moderate postholing led us up to this, the summit. It had a 360degree surround of tight trees (no view), and I'm guessing was maybe 5' higher than the ground under the lookout. sigh. Another debate had me return the way we came until we got to Deep Saddle, then we walked th road back to the truck.
A few views from the road.
And this one to show how nice the road is. But don't run off!
Map
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