Trip Report
Alpine Scramble - Hibox Mountain
A small weather window allowed us to complete Hibox and enjoy the fall colors.
Jim Griffing
- Sat, Oct 18, 2025
- Alpine Scramble - Hibox Mountain
- Hibox Mountain
- Scrambling
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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The road is fine for most vehicles.
The Rachel Lake trail is in reasonable shape for the amount of traffic it gets. The climber's trail towards Hibox is also in good shape. Be cautious on the way down as the obvious trail at about 4200' is not the way you came up - turn right to stay on the correct trail.
Most trip reports talk about the chimney. The chimney is straight forward - there is an airy move above the chimney that was really the crux for most of the scramblers in our group.
Assistant Leader Whitney at the bottom of the Chimney - Photo Kari Owens 
Whitney (Yellow Pack) helping folks over the crux on the way down There was some snow near the summit block, but not much and it didn't impact the traction on the scramble route.
We left the Rachel Lake Trailhead at 8 AM. Hike in on the maintained trail for a little more than 2 miles then headed up the obvious climber's path. Fall foliage was brilliant.
Rain was forecast to start around 3 PM so we tried not to dilly dally too much on the steep climber's trail. There were a couple of scrambly bits on the trail, but nothing too hard.
Based on trip reports we knew better than to try to scramble up either of the tempting gullies near the summit. Instead, we traversed right until we saw the chimney. The chimney was straight forward. There was a slightly airy move after the chimney to get over a small ridge. After that, the summit was a few steps away.
We headed back down the way we came up. The rain held off until we were off the summit block and it was pretty light all the way down. We reached the trailhead just before 4 PM.
GPS indicated that we traveled a little over 7 miles with 3500' of gain in just under 8 hours.