Trip Report
Winter Scramble - Dirty Harry's Peak
Early season winter scramble to Dirty Harry's Peak. Great workout.
Matt Surprenant
- Tue, Dec 23, 2025
- Winter Scramble - Dirty Harry's Peak
- Dirty Harry's Peak, Balcony & East Balcony
- Scrambling
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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Snow: first encountered patchy snow around 2000 feet. Snow became more solid around 3000 feet (near creek crossing). Snow steadily got deeper from there, but trail was well packed down so post holing was not a concern. Could have probably used snowshoes at ridge to submit (at around 4500 feet), but got away without using them.
One creek crossing at 3000 feet required some consideration, but there were adequate rocks to cross it without getting feet wet (waterproof boots definitely required).
No avalanche concerns on route due to being either lower elevation, dense trees, and/or low slope angle.
We had a nice early season winter scramble to Dirty Harry's Peak. There was almost enough snow to use snowshoes, but not quite enough. We carried them but only one of used them, so the snowshoes gave us some extra work out weight. No microspikes were required as the fresh snow wasn't packed down too much. The trail was easy to follow. We did eventually reach a winter wonderland with trees and trail covered in snow. The summit is tree covered, so although there were peekaboo views at the summit, there was no single great view. It was a bit windy and cold at the summit so we didn't stick around too long.