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Alpine Scramble - Red Mountain (Commonwealth Basin)

Successful summit of Red Mountain; strong party, great weather.

Jerry Stein Jerry Stein
July 27, 2020
  • Road suitable for all vehicles

  • There is now a trail to the summit, albeit a little rugged the last 1000 ft up the "summit block". As I recall it was not this developed when I last visited in July 2003. Hardly a scramble now unless you leave the trail to make it more challenging; fortunately that's easy to do.  In fact there are several "trails" up and we missed part of the best-developed one on the ascent but kept on it while descending.

PCT N TH, busy as usual, bathrooms now open so NW Forest Pass required (unlike 3 weeks ago).

The four of us set out from PCT N TH at 08:00, summited at 10:30. We donned helmets for ascent and descent of the last 1000' "summit block" but the party mostly avoided/prevented rockfall issues. Encountered one descending scrambler and one PCT section hiker who had ventured here and had turned around. We lounged on the spacious summit for an hour  under clear skies with a pleasant breeze and spectacular views. A relocated (collared) mountain goat came up from the northeast and was surprised to see us, quickly ambled off down the east slope.  We left the summit at 11:30, met two other parties of two ascending.  Returned to main trail around 12:20,  where another party of four and a solo scrambler were on their way up. Returned to trailhead around 13:30.