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Trip Report    

Alpine Scramble - Alta Mountain

Excellent snow scramble to Alta Mountain. Had the place to ourselves!

Matt Surprenant Matt Surprenant
June 15, 2025
  • Road suitable for all vehicles

  • Road - excellent dirt road and snow free (despite the forest service website claiming it to be blocked by snow and impassable)

    Route:

    Trail to Rachel Lake: snow starting at approximately 4000'. Trail difficult to follow at points due to either snow or blow downs blocking path. 

    Some creek crossings have precarious rocks or logs to cross - recommend caution in late spring and poles for balance

    Ridge up Alta Mountain has some cornices (and at summit). Some transitions between snow and rock and post holing concerns.

We had a beautiful scramble to Alta Mountain on a weekday. Despite the popularity of this trail, we had the place to ourselves on a Monday.

We started in  cloudy conditions, but warm and dry weather.

The initial trail is in excellent shape with very little snow for the beginning of June.  The snow and the challenge begin when the trail starts to ascend to Rachel Lake. There are some places where the trail is not obvious, either due to blow downs or to snow. Either way, route finding is required, but this was a scramble, and we had a great team, so we figured it out. Along the way, there are several creek crossings that prevent varying levels of difficulty, but none was impassable if you were willing to step across rocks or logs. It was definitely helpful to have poles in these sections. There is plenty of water available if you need to filter.

We made it to the lake in about 3 hours. By this point, the clouds had started to clear and we had good views of Rampart Ridge.

The lake was still frozen, with some edges beginning to melt out. After a brief stop to admire the lake and have a snack, we headed towards the ridge. Since the trail was covered at this point, we ascended climbers right of where the trail is. There were some points of loose rock and steep snow, but it wasn't too difficult to get to the ridge.

The ridge was a nice combination of snow and trail. The way finding wasn't too difficult, and we were able to avoid any cornices or snow moat problems. There are many, many false summits though, so be mentally prepared for that! It took us about another 2.5 hours to get to the summit from the lake. At the summit, there was a large cornice that we stayed clear of.

By the time we reached the summit, the clouds had cleared, and we had amazing views. We stayed for lunch and then headed down. On the way back, we descended the ridge where the trail is, which was slightly easier than the way up. It was a warm day, so the snow got soft and post holing became a bigger concern. Rachel Lake definitely melted out a lot during the few hours we had been on the ridge. 

We returned to the parking lot via the trail. The total trip time was about 10 hours.