Trip Report
Alpine Scramble - Silver King
Successful scramble with all students doing well. Limited views of Rainier and less than ideal conditions for self-arrest practice but all in all a very good day.
Fritz Klein
- Sun, Apr 30, 2017
- Alpine Scramble - Silver King
- Silver King
- Scrambling
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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Conditions were generally good, but there was too much fresh snow for good self-arrest practice. We did find one slope just above Elizabeth Lake where we had a pretty good glissade, at least after the assistant leader got it started. There were a few icy areas, but not enough to be worth putting on microspikes. There was some postholing, but it would not have been worth bringing snowshoes. Views from the top were best toward the east; to the west there were peek-a-boo views of Rainier. There was some uncomfortable wind near the top, but it wasn't so bad on the summit. On the descent, it got cloudier and it snowed a bit.
This was a fine scramble. In addition to an assistant instructor there was another experienced participant who is in the process of becoming a scramble leader. So, it was nice to have a total of 3 who could instruct and encourage the 7 students. We stopped frequently to check maps and discuss route finding, and found a marginal slope on which to do some self-arrest practice. The glissade was enjoyable enough that some climbed up to do it again. Total round trip time was about 7 hours.