"Another week, another hike up Mailbox with AK. This time, however, with a quick peak at Dirtybox. Really enjoyed the scrambling after the leg work. Cloudy and in the high 40's, parking lot was insanely overflowed" — zachmitch • Jun 1, 2024

"Daria Kashcha of PNW Peakbaggers has read a few #HikingWithHadland trip reports and wanted to experience a great hike, but avoid one of my famous Alpine Finishes, so she suggested an Alpine Start. Apparently, she read about my failed attempt at the Mailbox Peak to Dirty Harry’s Peak back in April and was intrigued about the ability to summit multiple mountains, without having to climb them all from a low elevation – hence the intrigue of the traverse at its intended vertical to summit efficiency. I was open to this and agreed to meet an O Dark 5:30 at the trailhead – waking at 3:30AM, wolfing down my precious marionberry pie and coffee earlier than usual, and delaying the 10-100 call. Now realize that I have never met Daria, and have only connected with her online in our PNW Peakbagging Group as a result of many exchanges on mutual objectives, folks we know, etc.- so as a new hiking and climbing partner, there is mutual risk about embarking on an outing with little prior first-hand experience. Choosing a partner for hiking, and much more so for climbing is really an important decision, especially as you may need to rely upon your partner’s skills, mental efficacy, climbing, firs..." — markhadland • May 22, 2021

"Seldom seen side of Mailbox Peak from Dirty Box Peak and beyond. Almost sent the entire Box Ridge solo to Dirty Harry’s Peak before getting cliffed out midway between DBP and DHP. The route up the old trail was dry until about 3600 feet, then the snow was persistent. I suggest wearing microspikes at a minimum – make that mandatory – the way down after the afternoon heat was slick. Up and down the rock section to the summit was easy in spikes. It’s possible to glissade down about 500 feet from the summit. I set out today to simply climb MPB to get some vert in for the Facebook Group PNW Peak Baggers virtual Mount Everest Challenge. I felt good after summiting Mount St. Helens Friday, so after many years of researching, planning, reconnoitering, and a false start or two, took off down the ridge for Dirtybok Peak. My initial obstacle was route finding after another hiker decided to relieve himself right on the rocks I was planning to disembark upon – oh well. I scrambled down the initial rocks and set forth on the ridge – it was fairly straightforward as the snow was still firm. Although narrow in places, the snowy ridge was navigable. About a quarter of the way along the ridge ..." — markhadland • Apr 18, 2021

"I conquered Dirtybox peak in the usual way, by traversing the ridge from Mailbox. I then bushwhacked down the north side. I was hoping to find a couple old forest service roads, about 700 ft below the summit. Unfortunately, I just found a lot of rocks strewn about in a relatively open area. I suppose these were once used in the embankment of the roads, but I did not succeed in following these roads very far (see map). Eventually I gave up and just headed through a relatively open area going north and down. This turned into a steep streambed - it's the one descending more or less directly under the summit. I could see it easily looking back from the Granite Creek Trail, once I got down to it. I considered going down a ridge, rather than the gully, but it looked more likely to have cliffs. The gully was very steep in some parts, but it never left me at the top of a waterfall. I could always make my way down, though some of it was very heavily congested with blackberries (or something similar) and devil's club. My leather work gloves were handy; long pants were essential. I was surprised how long it took - 4 hours to go down about 2000 feet. The water situation was inte..." — markgarrett • Aug 27, 2017

"Early season loop out of Dirty Harry's TH. Headed up road to the fire training center and then found the old trail from there up Mailbox. Traversed over to Dirty Box (fairly easy) then over to DIrty Harry. Went straight up the west ridge of Dirty Harry which involved some exposed class 4 moves. Then followed the trail down to the basin below Webb, ascended the Talus slop to Web and followed Banana Ridge over P3 and then to Defiance. Dropped down to Mason Lake and then to Ira springs. Then closed the loop out with some running. " — stukesowle • Apr 19, 2016

"We planned to do a ski trip, but rain and high avy danger convinced us to cancel. Instead we did Mailbox and crossed over to Dirtybox. It drizzeled off and on. Not much in the way of views due to the clouds. Only one small snowpatch right at the top of Mailbox. Some snow between Mailbox and Dirtybox." — MangyMarmot • Jan 17, 2015

"My buddy Paul and I have had a bit of a vendetta against West Defiance Ridge ever since we attempted to traverse it from Mailbox Peak to Mount Defiance 2 years ago and had to bail and head Down Dirty Harry's Peak disappointed and in fading light. The problem that day was very poor visibility due to thick, low cloud cover, which made our route finding completely reactive to what the ridge presented to us in the moment at hand. This caused much delay and even considerable amounts of backtracking as we made our way from Mailbox Peak nearly to Web Peak before turning back and taking the trail down Dirty Harry's Peak. Today's weather called for sunshine and temps in the upper 80s, so we were confident the route finding should present no problem, but were anticipating a very hot day since we were to be exposed to the sun nearly the entire way between Dirty Harry's Peak and Mount Defiance. Despite knowing what we were getting ourselves into, I still failed to fully prepare myself for the heat. 6 liters of water/Gatorade for 6 peaks did not cut it. Anyway, without further ado lets jump into the trip. First up was Mailbox Peak. No big deal. Some good conversation and we were th..." — Al-Rashid • Aug 10, 2014