Mount Ararat (winter)

Fun snow scramble if a long day, with longer mileage than hinted at in the usual trip description. We encountered snow patches on the Kautz Creek trail a bit above the 4000' stream crossing, and were at consistent snow just before topping out at the 4800' ridge line. From there, we elected to take the winter route, heading NW to the ridge line south of point 5334. That ridge had more bumps, some scattered rock, and then a large cliff that necessitated some downclimbing of very firm snow through the forest, where good technique was critical. From there, we rounded up through the gully south of the summit. Just before the summit, we encountered fresh goat prints, but did not see the critters. On the descent, we were able to glissade a bit but the snow was heavy and somewhat slow. We followed essentially the trail route back to the 4800' mark. While we were perhaps a drop on the slow side of a moderate pace, our time car-to-car was 10 hours, including breaks. Three students got snow credit today in good form.