Trip Report
Alpine Scramble - Goat Island Mountain Loop (Mt Rainier)
Gorgeous Little Tahoma and Mt Rainier views on this ~11 mile/~3500’ loop of Goat Island Mountain.
Dave Morgan
- Sat, Jun 22, 2019
- Alpine Scramble - Goat Island Mountain
- Goat Island Mountain
- Scrambling
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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Fragments of snow at ~5800’ elevation for north facing slopes, and mostly snow free south facing meadows between ~6000’ and the summit. Non-existent snow cover gave us lots of rock hopping while traversing the Fryingpan Creek head waters, as well as plenty of brush work as we approached the Wonderland Trail. Brought crampons/micro-spikes, but did not use them.
This trip was a counterclockwise loop which gave us beautiful views of Little Tahoma and Mt Rainier for most of the day (ascended the ENE ridge, before traversing at ~5800’ to reach the E ridge, leading directly to the summit through beautiful meadows). As usual, we crossed Fryingpan Creek high in the basin where there was more braiding and less stream flow related crossing difficulty. Total time was 9 hours, with 4 hours up, 4 hours down, and a leisurely hour for lunch on the summit. Photos from this, and other trips to this venue can be seen here.