Trip Report
Alpine Scramble Snow 2 Field Trip - Alpental Ski Area/Denny Mountain
A bad snow year meant traveling higher to practice snow skills, and ultimately allowed us to tag Denny Mountain.
Ron Jones
- Sat, May 9, 2026
- Snow II Field Trip - Alpental Ski Area
- Alpental Ski Area
- Scrambling
- Successful
-
- Road suitable for all vehicles
-
Dry roads to a dry and dusty parking. The lower Alpental slopes are now brushy but after about 600' vertical it gets better. We found some decent snow above that all the way to the summit block. We were able to use crampons on the Upper portion of Armstrong Express (not necessary, but great practice while the snow was firmer. The summit block was dry. We practiced ice axe arrest in Edelwiess Basin. Soon it may be too thin for that. We did have to be careful on the descent with random postholing in melted areas.
This was planned as Olympia's Snow 2 Field trip for Alpine Scrambling. Normally we use Paradise for both FTs, but decided to mix it up for this year. What a year to change it up!! The original plan was to just spend time on snow skills going up as far as we needed. But the low snow meant we had to go all the way to Edelweiss basin for the conditions we needed.
At the end of the day, it turned out to be a great venue and experience for everyone. The class of 9 got a full scramble to the summit of Denny Mountain. We were able to incorporate all of our skills for a second time, including crampon travel, ice axe arrest, glissading, general snow travel, traversing, touched on emergency shelters, and got a rock summit to boot. I took a rope along, and everyone donned their down climb harness but no one needed it.
All total we were 8 hours car to car. 2500' gain and supposedly 6 miles per the route, but my garmin read 4 miles. We saw only 4 other people on the slopes. 2 headed up as we practice ice axe arrest on our way down, and 2 more at the base of Edelweiss.
All in all a great day out with a ton of stoke and sense of accomplishment.
The XL size Kit Kat summit seems to be a hit as a summit snack!
I gave it 5 stars because we tagged Denny. If only to Edelwiess Basin, in the conditions we had, maybe 3 to 4 stars.