Trip Report
Alpine Scramble - Cowlitz Rocks (winter)
Snow scramble of Cowlitz Rocks
Mark Scheffer
- Sat, Apr 25, 2026
- Alpine Scramble - Cowlitz Rocks (winter)
- Cowlitz Rocks (winter)
- Scrambling
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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No significant issues with the route.
The snow is exceptionally low. In past years in JUNE I've seen the snow on the side of the parking lot up to 20' high. On our trip in APRIL the snow was less than 5' high. Not a good sign for this summer.
The day was clear and sunny. We did the standard approach via paradise valley road. the snow was hard and we switched to crampons at the top of Mazama ridge. Prior to that we had good steps to follow in or we would have put them on when we left the road. We used crampons to the summit of Cowlitz Rocks without issues.
On descent the snow significantly softened up quickly at around 7k' and we switched to snowshoes for the remainder of the trip to the cars. Everyone we encountered also were either in snowshoes or skis. Very odd given I've only been taking my snowshoes for rides on my backpack almost all winter.