Trip Report
Winter Scramble - Mount Ararat (winter)
Great day spent scrambling Mount Ararat in MRNP.
Rodica Manole
- Sat, Jan 5, 2019
- Winter Scramble - Mount Ararat
- Mount Ararat
- Scrambling
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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We found less snow than expected and didn't put snowshoes on until at about 4,700 ft. Kautz Creek crossing was straight forward (some participants used traction for the icy bridge, some didn't). Avalanche hazards were negligible and easy to avoid. We decided to traverse the SW slope and then gain and follow the NW ridge for the summit push. The snow pack was hard for the last 400 ft and we decided to use the ice axes. Going up we all used snowshoes but coming down most of us switched to crampons for the icy section.
Party of 7 made it on the summit in 4.5 hours, spent 30 minutes having lunch sheltered in the threes while wind was howling. We made it back to the cars in about 3 hours, right when the forecasted storm was rolling in.