Alpine Scramble - Snowking Mountain/Northeast Shoulder

We parked our cars just past the Cascade River bridge, elevation 1160'.  You can drive a little bit further, but there is only room for two or three cars, and those spots were taken (you also have to drive over a little stream to get there).

We started hiking the overgrown road for ~3 miles, then headed up a very steep bootpath for a mile or so until the grade lessens.  Eventually we gained the Kindy-Found ridge, summitting (and descending) several minor bumps along the way.  We descended down toward Cyclone Lake and found good campsites near the tarns above the lake.

The next morning we awoke to rain and delayed our start until 10:45am.  This was planned to be a 3 day trip so I wasn't worried too much about timing.  The ridge to the summit is easy to follow.  Only routefinding mistake was near the summit where I led us up a very steep snowslope.  Only upon reaching the top of the snow did I notice the bootpath extending from the other smaller snowfield to the left.

We made it back to camp at 4pm, and decided to hike out that evening, rather than wait to the morning.

• Cars to camp: ~7 hours
• Camp to summit: ~3 hours
• Summit to camp ~2 hours
• Camp to cars: 4 1/2 hours