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Trip Report    

Winter Scramble - Mildred Point

A group of 7 delightful humans scrambled to Mildred Point on a warm, sunny day.

Sherrie Trecker Sherrie Trecker
April 05, 2026
  • Road suitable for all vehicles

  • Longmire is snow free, but we began to encounter intermittent snow almost immediately. We wore microspikes at times but for the most part didn’t need any traction. We left snowshoes in the car. 

    We encountered several downed trees. We followed the summer trail up, more or less, but on the descent we decided to stay higher on the ridge to avoid avalanche concerns. We saw some roller balls on east aspects of steeper slopes. 

We departed Longmire at around 7:30 AM and followed the Wonderland Trail up to the Van Trump Park trail. There was a good boot track almost all the way to the Mildred Point turnoff, where we began to make our own way up a steep slope to get to a wide, flat area and then on to Mildred Point. We had perfect step kicking snow as we ascended to the top. We just used trekking poles and boots for the ascent. We arrived at the summit just after noon and we saw a mountain goat on a ridged along with full views of Adams, Saint Helens, the Tatoosh range, and of course, Rainier. We stayed on the summit for quite a while, soaking in the sun. 
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Even though we followed the summer trail and there was a boot track a lot of the way, it still felt quite scrambly with the snow variety, navigation requirements, downed trees, tree wells, avalanche signs, and kicking steps. It kept us all engaged and on our toes as we worked together to make optimal route decisions. 

The descent was slippery in places, particularly once we were back on trail. It slowed us down a bit. We got back to the cars just after 4 and they had already closed the uphill gate to Paradise… they seem to still be holding fast to the 9 AM to 5 PM gate closure.

Trip stats: 10 miles, 3600’.