Per WW7D there are numerous ways to get to Ski Acres Hill, including walking up the ski slopes. The ski area is open to hikers in the summer.
The "back way" from Hyak involves navigating some gnarly FS roads and does not involve going on any private property. The PCT also passes 1/3 of a mile (and 1000' gain) to the west of the summit. One could take the PCT and bushwhack up to the summit.
Howlock Mountain had caught my eye during the 2023 W7O Campout. It was an unactivated summit off trail north of Thielsen and south of Tipsoo. For 2025, Adam K6ARK and Mark KD7DTS proposed doing the ridge traverse from Tipsoo (W7O/CS-195). After some VHF shenanigans on Tipsoo, we backtracked on the trail briefly before leaving it and descending south.
See http://www.pnwsota.org/blog/k7agl/2025-june-30/jumbo-peak-wa-june-2025 for the write up of Sunrise and Jumbo Peaks double activation.
The double summit activation of Sunrise Peak and Jumbo Peak is under 9 miles RT and 3500 feet vertical climbing. My milage was off a bit due to probing for a south approach on Jumbo. There are a number of trip reports floating around on the web, I would rate this activation as an “advanced” SOTA adventure. I started from Sunrise TH 262. Google Maps routed me to this TH with no issues. It took me 1.5 hours to get to the trailhead departing from Mossyrock, WA.
This year I'm particularly interested in first activations. One of the few remaining unactivated peaks within a couple hours drive from Seattle was Ebey Hill near Arlington, due to the access issues described in this previous pnwSOTA post by WA7JNJ.
Summary - Sawtooth Mountain, on the north end of Indian Heaven Wilderness, is a 2.5 mile hike with 1000 feet of gain from the parking lot to the edge of the activation zone. This trip report describes getting to the summit, another hundred feet or so up, with unprotected class three and four traverses/climbing and significant exposure.
Bring a climbing helmet for this summit! Even under the trees, you're in the kill zone for falling rocks!
Mt. Jefferson, considered one of if not the hardest summits in the state or Oregon to make it to. Having climbed (and activated) a lot of the big things that the Oregon cascades have to offer at this point, I can definitely confirm that this mountain isn’t a joke and requires a lot of serious mountaineering skills and conditioning in order to even be attempted since the combination of factors makes it a real challenge.
This is another summit I activated with my mountain bike and in this case that turned out to be a mistake as the bushwhack to the top is very steep, very thick, and not at all fun to do in bike shorts and shoes with spd cleats in them.