Alpine Scramble - Cowlitz Rocks (winter)

Led a group of 5 Olympia scramble students plus myself and an assistant leader.

Our group of 7 met at Paradise at 8.  We were on the Paradise Valley road by 830 and then we started up the 4th crossing trail to the Skyline Trail up to Mazama Ridge.  The weather was partly to mostly sunny, so we had great views of Mt. Rainier and the Tatoosh along the way.  As we ascended, we got our first glimpses of Mt. Adams and Mt. St. Helens.

The snow was soft.  We did not have any problems since we were all on snowshoes, but the ascent was definitely "sloggy."  We soon left Mazama Ridge and continued on our northerly direction up to about 6,700 feet where we turned northeast to our summit block.  

We took off our snowshoes and then scrambled up the talus to a notch.  A few easy steps later, we were on the summit itself.  There had been some clouds on our way up that obscured the visibility, but the clouds subsided enough for us to have great views of Mt. Rainier along with the Tatoosh, Adams, and MSH to our south.

Since it was breezy, we took a few summit shots and then descended the summit block for lunch.  After lunch, it was time to put the snowshoes on and head down the way we came.  I'm not sure if someone in our group had a flight to catch, but we were moving all the way down to Paradise Valley Rd.

The worst part of the scramble was the hike back up the road to the Paradise parking lot, but we all trudged along and made it back to the cars by 3:45pm.

It was a fun scramble.  I hadn't done this trip before and I wanted to do lead something than my normal Foss Peak scramble.  It is strenuous in soft snow, but it was a fun trip.  We celebrated with brownies and soft drinks at the car.