Trip Report
Alpine Scramble - Foss Peak
Successful snow ascent of Foss Peak. It was a great day for practicing ice axe travel in firm snow and mild pleasant weather.
Philippe Nguyen
- Sat, May 9, 2026
- Alpine Scramble - Foss Peak
- Unicorn, Foss, Boundary & Stevens Peaks
- Scrambling
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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Snow cover was patchy on the trail from Narada Falls parking lot to Stevens Canyon Road. Starting from the summer trailhead onwards, the route was completely snow covered until the very top of the summit. The snow was firm in both forest and open slopes, with only occasional postholing from hazards underneath the snow. The firmness worked well for kicking steps and we did not need any foot traction gear. The final 100 feet of summit slope was the most technically challenging, requiring some self-belay and face-in downclimbing.
Light afternoon cloud cover kept the snow in good conditions. Some of the ridge traverse between The Castle and Foss would have been very mushy in full sunshine. The snow over the summer ridgeline trail was good enough to stay on the ridge instead of dipping below the trees.
We got a late start at the Narada Falls parking lot. We planned on meeting at 8:30 AM, but this was cutting it a little late with park entrance traffic, and one participant got stuck waiting for 15 minutes in line. Meeting at 8 AM would have been wiser.
We started hiking the half-mile connector trail to Stevens Canyon Road shortly after 9 AM. That trail is partially melted out. After a little over a mile of road walking, we got on the snow. There were many boot print paths winding their way up the slope; we trended more westward than most, sticking close to the path of the summer trail to avoid some steep slopes and ravines. We took out ice axes and helmets once the steepness became significant. Behind us Tahoma shone brilliantly in the morning sunshine.
At 11 AM we began an ascending traverse across the north slopes of The Castle, awestruck by a gorgeous sun halo hovering over the mountain. We crested the ridge at a point east of the bowl near The Castle and found a nice shady spot to hang out and enjoy our first views of Foss Peak, Unicorn Peak, Mount Adams, Mount Hood, Mount Saint Helens, and a group of climbers ascending the summit block of The Castle.
We started traversed the ridgeline towards Foss around 12. The north face was steep but not corniced; for most of it we had enough flat snow between the north slope and the band of trees to the south so that we could walk with no struggle nor exposure. We skirted south of the lake below the summit and powered our way up to top. The final 100' was the steepest walking we had to do; given the exposure (including a huge cliff drop climber's left of the route) we used a bit self-belay ascending and face-in downclimbing for this section. We summited at 1:06 and spent about a half hour enjoying our lunch with incredible views.
The descent offered great plunge-stepping and quite a few enjoyable glissades, especially on the slopes under The Castle. We mostly stuck to our ascent path on the way down, took a break at the road to put away our axes and helmets, and enjoyed a calm stroll back to the cars, finishing around 5 PM.
