Winter Scramble - Mutton Mountain

Seven of us scrambled up Mutton Mountain, 20 miles NE of Rainier, and 5 miles north of the Crystal Mtn ski area.  We had interesting conditions, no snow at the trailhead (3000 ft), but above 5000 ft the snow was 4 ft of slightly sticky powder.  Going up the SW facing slopes it was deep, but on the wind-blown final ascent it was not.  We took turns breaking trail.  The weather was predicted to be rain and snow, but we actually saw a lot of blue sky and sun - very nice! Never a full view of Rainier though.  There was a forest fire a recently in this area, so we hiked through burned, dead trees at 4000-5000 ft elevation.  Mutton itself is a bare, rocky knob, though the hike up a ridge was easy.  Windy and cold at the top.  For anyone interested in finding this peak, we left you a very nice snowshoe trail through the deep snow.  Get it while you can!  

3580 ft gain, 9.5 miles, 9:45 hours