Trip Report
Alpine Scramble - Crater Lake & Blowdown Mountains
Good initial student scramble, very avalanche safe as noted on prior trip reports. Good conditioner close to town.
David Judish
- Sun, Apr 30, 2023
- Alpine Scramble - Crater Lake & Blowdown Mountains
- Mount Si Main Trail
- Scrambling
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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Stable snowpack starting at the lunch rocks below Si. Enough snow to facilitate cross country travel without encountering brush.
We had a mostly cloudy and cool day after 2 days of sudden warming; the special avalanche warning from NWAC was still in effect, but the snow was very stable. With 2 students fresh off ice axe training and one second-year student, our party of 8 did a clockwise loop, up the old Si trail, hitting snow at lunch rocks so microspikes were not needed for the first time on the Si trail in months.
Followed trail until below Blowdown summit, broke trail to it then followed old tracks down to saddle and up to Crater Lake Peak, where we could see back to Haystack and at times over to Dixie, but not down to Crater Lake today. Dropped down 400' from trail below Blowdown on snow to Teneriffe connector trail, then followed trail down to Talus Loop to complete the loop. Much less traffic on this side of the loop, and a more gradual gradient with well-built trail is easier on the knees on the descent.
Some used microspikes on the snow trail section, and students got in ice axe practice to earn snow credit, but neither were essential today.
Just under 9 hours including breaks at a modest pace.
