Trip Report
Alpine Scramble - Cowboy Mountain
Five new scramblers completed their first scramble on Cowboy Mountain in glorious weather. Yee-haw!
Mary Lou Biggs
- Sun, Apr 26, 2026
- Alpine Scramble - Cowboy Mountain
- Cowboy & Big Chief Mountains
- Scrambling
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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The bathrooms in the Granite Peaks Lodge of the ski resort are open; what a luxury to have a clean, heated bathroom with running water at the trailhead. As other trip reports have noted, the snowpack is much lower this year than this same time last year. There are bare spots on the ski slopes, although the skier compacted snow on the upper north-facing slopes is hanging in there and is still providing a good training ground for multiple groups of scramble and climbing students learning snow travel skills. On our ascent in the morning the snow on the ski slopes was firm but easy to kick steps into. The snow is very thin and was extremely icy on the southwest treed ridge of Cowboy. There were only a few small cornices remaining on the final SE ridge to the summit. On the day of our trip the snow was well-consolidated and we observed no signs of instability.
The party consisted of five scramble students and two leaders.
Starting from the Lot A parking area we walked across the plaza and then worked our way up ski slopes to the top of the Skyline Express chairlift. After a short break to admire the views of Glacier Peak and surrounding mountains, we continued behind the chairlift and climber’s left around a small snow-covered pond, then used a short ramp to gain the SW ridge of Cowboy Mountain. Once on the tree-shaded ridge we quickly encountered very icy conditions and put on crampons and helmets to continue our ascent.
We wore crampons for the rest of the ascent and most of the descent, although could have removed them once we were back on the ski slopes. The final ridge is narrow in spots but the snow (now in the sun) was soft and easy to travel on. Most of the party used trekking poles only for the ascent but all of us pulled out our ice axes for the descent. After a leisurely lunch at the summit we returned the way we came.
This was a full weekend of learning and new experiences for the 5 students who had their course snow field trip on Saturday followed by this snow scramble on Sunday. Participants reported that they now had a much better idea of what scrambling was, better context for the S and T ratings, and were excited for the opportunity to explore the new terrain that scrambling skills opened up for them. Mission accomplished! One participant exclaimed that the trip had changed her life. Whoa Nelly!