Trip Report
Alpine Scramble - Big Snow Mountain
I’m surprised that this scramble isn’t listed more frequently. The bike approach is enjoyable and the scramble itself offers a variety of terrain and scenery. It requires a long day but offers a great reward!
Tobias Bajwa
- Thu, Jun 19, 2025
- Alpine Scramble - Big Snow Mountain
- Big Snow Mountain
- Scrambling
- Successful
-
- Road recommended for high clearance only
Road to the Middle Fork Bridge has excellent pavement, afterwards it gets pretty bumpy and high clearance is certainly desirable. With some skill a regular car might be able to make it though (I saw one Ford Fusion at the trailhead a couple of days before this trip). We met at the bridge (Garfield Ledges trailhead), and consolidated into high-clearance cars. The 7 miles to the trailhead took about 40 minutes. (If you don't have a high clearance car but have an e-bike you could also consider biking from the end of the pavement, it would likely not take you much longer than driving up the car.)
From there we took the gated forest road towards Dutch Miller Gap using mountain bikes. The path is at times a bit rocky but with a proper mountain bike (in my opinion) pretty enjoyable. The first 4 miles ascend mildly, after the turnoff to Goldmyer Hot Springs it gets substantially steeper though. Some of us (including me) had e-MTBs and we cruised up easily, for the rest of the group on regular mountain bikes it was more of a workout.
We stashed our bikes at the easy-to-miss trailhead (there’s a small overgrown clearing for some cars to park) and finally got onto the actual scramble. The trail towards Hardscrabble Lakes isn’t maintained but travelled well enough to not pose any navigation challenges. It follows an old forest road at first, then crosses the first (of three) talus fields before getting into the woods again. The trail stays close to Hardscrabble Creek until you pop out at the lower lake.
At that point you get into the second talus field to reach the north end of the lake. There’s no trail here, just vanilla talus scrambling making your own path (we stayed close to the water though). Once past the talus we contoured around the lake (staying away from the swampy meadows) to reach the outflow from the upper lake / waterfall on its North side. Right next to the creek you will find a climber’s path that is then again is easy to follow to get you all the way to the upper lake.
At the upper lake we encountered some campers who were having a substantial bonfire that smoked in half the lake… Those were the only folks we saw all day. From the lake the use trail contours on the climber’s left next to the creek again until you get to a forested and somewhat cliffy section where it peters out. It helps to have a GPS track here to not get off-track but you have to make your way up that short rock section before a faint use trail appears again. We took slightly different paths on the way up and down and couldn’t determine if either of them was the default route (they had some travel on them but not a ton).
After a short very light bushwhack we ended up facing the gully that takes you to the notch in the summit ridge. The gully was mostly melted out requiring again some talus + heather travel but the top part still had enough snow to make travel a bit easier and allow for at least one shorter glissade on the way down!
Once at the notch you can finally spot the summit… again! (You can also see the summit ridge from the lower lake). We dropped slightly into the basin on the other side to avoid unnecessary sidehilling. You don’t want to stay on the ridge right after getting to the notch, unless your goal is to actually bag Hardscrabble Dome. Once in the basin it’s straightforward travel all the way to the summit. There was plenty of snow here but here and there the beautiful slabs were already poking through that supposedly make this fun scrambling later in the season as well.
The weather was fantastic until now (sunny with the occasional cloud rolling in). Right as we hit the summit we got socked in though but we got below the clouds again on the descent. Travel back was uneventful, mountain bike ride to the trailhead was fun!
Gear:
Mountain bikes (obviously; CX bike might make it but it would not be an enjoyable ride)
Poles or ice axe (for the last section towards the notch)
Crampons (brought but not used)
Elevation gain: 5300ft, about 1300ft of it by bike
Timings:
5:15 meet at Garfield Ledges TH
6:20 depart from Dingford Creek TH
8:05 stash bikes and depart from road
9:10 arrive at lower lake
10:20 arrive at upper lake
11:40 arrive at notch
12:50 summit
13:35 leave summit
17:15 back at bikes
18:30 back at cars