Trip Report
Winterish Scramble - Aurora Peak
A beautiful day in the Olympics, with a relatively thin layer of overnight snowfall making for a magical (and cold) ascent through snow dusted trail and trees. A great workout on this 5000’ gain, 9 mile outing. [Lead photo by Ahmed Okasha]
Dave Morgan
- Sat, Feb 14, 2026
- Winter Scramble - Aurora Peak
- Aurora Peak
- Scrambling
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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Unseasonably shallow snow conditions. Although we had a continuous covering of snow from just above the cars all the way to the summit, the depth was never more than ~4 inches except for a few short stretches. Just a few recent blowdowns that were quickly and easily negotiated.
Using a number of strategies (ferry vs. drive around, drive over the night before vs. morning of) we all assembled at the Storm King Ranger Station restrooms at 8:30AM. Given the sparse parking at the Aurora Creek Trailhead (unmarked, only space for 3-4 cars), we squeezed into several vehicles for the final 2.6 mile drive.
What with the low snow conditions we only carried micro-spikes plus poles or ice axe. The micro-spikes allowed us to make quick work of the trail and we soon found ourselves negotiating the last 500’ of gain (cross country) to the summit. The low snow conditions led to more brush work than the usual snowshoe travel.
By Nina Crampton
After a quick lunch in the stand of summit trees (brrrrr ;)…
By Ahmed Okasha
… we were soon headed down.
By Dave Morgan
The western edge of the summit meadow allowed us to skip the previous brush when descending to the Aurora Ridge Trail.
By Dave Morgan
Conditions continued to improve on our descent, giving us a beautiful rainbow…
By Nina Crampton
… as well as this gorgeous Lake Crescent view of the Mount Muller/Pyramid Mountain ridgeline.
By Nina Crampton
A great day in a pristine setting with absolutely no other parties encountered. Our total time was 7 hours car-to-car on this 9 mile, 5000’ gain trip. Photos from this and other trips to this venue can be seen here as well as here.