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Winter Scramble - Osborne Mountain

Winter scramble by Mt Rainier.

Mark Scheffer Mark Scheffer
March 30, 2026
  • Road suitable for all vehicles

  • The road to the trailhead is paved and appears it is plowed in the winter (there was no snow when we did this trip).  The campground where you park is closed and gated for the winter.  However, there was plenty of broad shoulder parking available off the main road.  If it is snowy and being plowed I am not sure if there would be any place to park however.  

    The trail was clear of snow to 4300' and there was almost no blow downs, which was surprising given how many other trails have tons of trees down on them.  The trail itself was in great shape.  

    Once the trail hits the ridge and starts the long south traverse there are several sections that, while not cliffs, are nearly so due to the steepness of the slope.  We all agreed that this would NOT be a good route to be on with snowshoes if there was snow. 

We arrived at 8am and easily access the trailhead by foot.  The trail was in very good shape the entire way to when we hit snow at 4300' on the latter half of the long south traverse. We cut up directly to the road though the trees at the end and avoided an additional half mile trail and then half mile road walk.  While the snow was not great, it was a better option going up and back down we felt.  

Once on the road we went to the north side of the peak and found an easy way trail that led to the summit.  The summit is very tree covered and not great views but continuing 30 yards to the south we found very open expansive views of Mt Rainier that made a great lunch spot.  The cliff to the east was corniced so we made sure to be well back from it while we had lunch.

We retuned the same way we came without any issues. Total round trip time was about 7 hours.