March 14, 2025

Start/End: Marshfield Station

Peaks: Monroe (5,384'), Washington (6,288')

Elevation Gain: 3,940 ft

RT Mileage: 8.82 mi

Duration: 7 hours, 27 minutes

Snow/Ice Difficulty: Grade I

A winter ascent of Monroe and Washington has been on my bucket list for over two years, but I've had to postpone a number of times for various reasons the last two winters. My patience was finally rewarded right at the end of my last winter here, with a perfect weather day on the 14th. It was a Friday, so I had to take the day off, but it was 100% worth it. This would also be my first time filming with my new Insta360 I had been inspired to buy after borrowing my friend's on Moriah in January.

Although the whole day looked nice, the forecast was for winds to decrease a little as the day progressed, so we let ourselves sleep in longer than usual. We woke up at 5:20 AM and left the house at 5:50, which had us at the Cog Base Station at 8:25. Apparently quite a few others had taken work off to enjoy the perfect weather in the Presis and the hiker parking was full when we arrived, so we parked in the bus/RV lot. After suiting up and taking a quick bathroom break, we set out on the trail just after 9:00.

Despite the recent warmth there was still nearly two feet of snowpack at the trailhead, though the overnight freeze and the dozen hikers ahead of us ensured the trail was rock solid. There wasn't a cloud in the sky when we set out, and remarkably it would remain that way all day. We used spikes from the get-go, though we were carrying crampons and axes in case we needed them on the steeper sections of Ammo or the last 300 vertical feet on Monroe. After 0.3 miles on the Ammo Link Trail, we joined the main Ammo Ravine Trail, which starts a mile lower at the Forest Service trailhead. After meandering alongside the river for another mile, we reached the Gem Pool just before 10:00, which is where the real hiking began.

From Gem Pool the trail basically ascends straight up the ravine for 1,000 vertical feet to treeline, at a sustained 40% grade. There was a trio of skiers and boarders ahead of us when we started this section, and we crossed back and forth with them a couple of times. Apparently they were headed to ski/board in Oakes Gulf, on the other side of Monroe, which sounded fun. Anyway, the conifers in the ravine started to get short pretty early, and it felt like we were getting close to treeline for a good 20 minutes before we finally did at 10:50. We decided to take a break here and let the skiers go ahead, and I got out my camera for a quick photoshoot. The weather was perhaps the nicest I've ever experienced above treeline in winter, mild with a light breeze and bluebird skies.

Treeline on Ammo isn't as defined as it is in most areas of the Whites, and quite significant quantities of dwarf spruce continued to grow on either side of the trail for several hundred feet above treeline, before finally tapering off below Lakes of the Clouds Hut. The trail's steepness at long last also tapered off below the hut, which we reached just after 11:30. The leeward side of the hut was buried in snow, as it usually is until April. We dropped off a bunch of gear at the hut before getting ready to make our summit push on Monroe, which had just come into view.

Monroe is one of the most aesthetic summits in the Whites in winter. Despite standing only 300 vertical feet above the hut, its pointy shape and deep snowfields give it a menacing aura not possessed even by Washington, which stands 1,200 vertical feet above the hut. The appearance of danger is not all for show either, as the upper part of the summit cone is steep enough for a slip to necessitate a self-arrest. For this purpose, we brought our ice axes.

After a quick walk to the col between Washington and Monroe, we began to ascend the Monroe summit cone. Starting out mellow at first, the trail quickly steepened as it began to traverse diagonally across a 100-vertical-foot snowfield with a maximum angle of around 40 degrees. Though brief, the scenery crossing this snowfield looked straight out of the Cascades.

While the wind had been calm lower down in the ravine and at the hut, it was sustained around 20 mph on Monroe, which was enough for the snowfield traverse to feel sketchy. At the top of the snowfield, we gained the false summit of Monroe, and from here it was just a short ridge walk to the true summit, which we gained at noon.

Because of the wind we didn't stay long on the summit, and we put on mittens, gaiters, and an extra layer before beginning to descend. After carefully making our way down the steepest part of the summit cone snowfield, we glissaded most of the rest of the way back to the col. The glissade felt sketchy too, and I arrested every time I felt my speed beginning to pick up. From the col it was again a quick walk back to the hut, and we were back just after 12:20 PM.

At the hut we picked up the gear we had left behind during our summit push on Monroe and left behind our crampons and axes. We figured since we hadn't needed crampons on Monroe, there was no chance we'd need them on the much mellower ascent of Washington. Indeed, the 1,200-vertical-foot ascent of the summit cone was underwhelming as always, especially right after Monroe. Above 6,000 ft everything was coated in rime ice, which was pretty cool. We summited at 2:00.

When I hiked Washington last July it had been socked in, and I thought I had been missing out on some great views, but apparently the views from the summit aren't actually all that great. I guess you can't get good views of mountains when they're all below you! Regardless, I was elated to finally have checked a winter ascent of Washington off the bucket list. One cool thing I noticed was how the western side of the northern Presis, especially Clay and Jefferson, were wind-scoured and bare, while the eastern side still retained deep snowpack. Interestingly it was far less windy on Washington than it had been on Monroe, so we were able to linger for a bit.

When we finally did get off the summit, we noticed that the snow had begun to soften into corn in the afternoon warmth, which was a little annoying descending Washington because the soft snow stuck to our spikes, but I remarked that it would probably be good for glissading when we got back onto Ammo. The view of Monroe and the hut ahead of us was pretty nice the second half of the descent, and I got my camera out for some photos.

We reached the hut for the third and final time at 2:50, where we picked up our crampons and axes for the descent. We decided to fold away our poles and carry our axes so we could use them to self-arrest if we chose to glissade on the way down. Choose to glissade we did, a few sections above treeline but a few hundred feet continuously below 4,000 ft. Ammo is now my second-favorite glissade in the Whites, though it still has nothing on South Hancock. Anyway, we were back down to the Gem Pool in a jiffy, and from there it was just a quick walk back to the car. We reached the parking lot at 4:30, and winter 4,000ers #9 and #10 were in the books, and I couldn't have picked a better day to do them.