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Trip Report    

Winter Scramble - Mount Ararat Traverse (winter)

A very strenuous (~14 miles, ~3800’ gain) and beautiful winter traverse of Mt Ararat, beginning at Longmire, and exiting at Kautz Creek.

Dave Morgan Dave Morgan
March 25, 2018
  • Road suitable for all vehicles

  • Fresh and powdery snows were with us the entire day, above a firm and icy layer of older snowfall. We started from Longmire with only ~4 inches of fresh snow and did not use snowshoes until reaching Kautz Creek. All creek crossings were non-eventful, although there were substantial amounts of water flowing through Kautz and Pyramid Creeks (crossing at braided areas helped at Kautz Creek). We had 1-2 feet of fresh snow over the icy layer above ~5200’ (from near Squaw Lakes to the south side of Ararat). For a number of short and steeper sections on our descent (south of Ararat) we temporarily removed our snowshoes to take advantage very nice plunge stepping with our boots (we did not bring or need crampons). A beaten track in the snow from the footbridge crossing at ~3940’ made our descent to the cars at Kautz Creek much easier.

A very strenuous (~14 miles, ~3800’ gain) and beautiful winter traverse of Mt Ararat, beginning at Longmire, and exiting at Kautz Creek. Staging the car shuttle for this traverse was very easy as we simply dropped off one car (for the drivers at the end of the day) at Kautz Creek on our way to Longmire in the morning. This was a very strenuous day (not unlike a 5000’ gain winter scramble) due to the trail breaking and route finding through fresh snow on both ascent and descent. Times were 2 hours from Longmire to Kautz Creek, 4 hours from Kautz Creek to the summit of Ararat, and 4.5 hours for descent with a total trip time of 10.7 hours. Photos from this and other trips to this venue can be seen here. The cross country portion of our ascent route can be seen here (adjusted a bit for a better experience on future trips ;), and the cross country portion of our descent route can be seen here.