Chris went hiking February 5, 2012 5.5 miles 1,500 feet gained

Archer Mountain Complex/Cape Horn Viewpoint

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Having just a few hours (sorry again Eric!), we decided to do a little exploring in the Archer Mountain complex. Did a little getting lost, found a lot of blowdown—especially starting at where the base of Archer converges (where I tagged the pin)—which slowed things way down. With 1000 ft of gain + a blowdown every 20 ft ahead of us, we decided to pack it in.

I want to come back here when things get cleaned up a bit. Any idea if we can just take a bow saw and go at it, or is this really a super special protected area?

Not getting any decent views, we stopped at the western Cape Horn tunnel and did the quick trip up to the viewpoint. Super windy.

Trail Talk

Roman · February 6, 2012

DN mentioned somewhere that closed area is the valley below Archer Falls, but while most of the area is technically open they keep closing every single trail that appears there. Look for DN's map in the images on summit post page: http://www.summitpost.org/archer-mountain/388020

Eric Peterson · February 6, 2012

Was up there last week, also after the recent wind storm, and not much blowdown. Must have been another wind whipper since then I guess.

Yeah, the Archer Falls cirque is strictly off limits.

NP, on St. Helens, that was pretty last minute planning. Probably should schedule that thing better anyway but try to get it done before the quota permit season starts and when the snow is still nice and solid as it has been during this dry stretch...

Chris · February 6, 2012

It could be that we were just on the wrong path. I was doing a lot of that.