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Winter Scramble - The Pulpit

Made the summit despite less than ideal weather

Tom Girard Tom Girard
March 13, 2017
  • Road rough but passable

  • Rainy Creek trail obscured by snow and blowdowns.  Only the lower 500' is visible.

Saturday March 11, 2017.

Group of 5 of us left the Middle Fork TH at 8am.  The Rainy Creek trail is an unsigned trail just past the Rainy Creek bridge.  It starts off nice enough, but is soon obscured by small creek crossings and small blowdowns.  We put on snowshoes at 1500', and followed where the trail likely is in the summer (it basically parallels Rainy Creek).  At around 3100' we headed northwest towards the east ridge of The Pulpit.  Upon reaching the ridge, we bypassed several gendarmes and false summits on the left.  Final summit climb required self-belaying with ice axes.  Came back down the same way, returning to the cars at 5:30pm.

Weather-wise, a nice morning, followed by a pretty wet and windy afternoon.  Snow conditions were very sloppy.  This would probably be a more interesting destination when the weather is not so challenging.  The summit is treed (as was 95% of the route), but there are enough open spots that I would assume there is a view in better weather.

~9 miles and 3800' elevation gain (gps track is inaccurate on the numbers)