Cowlitz Rocks Winter Scramble

A “Grade A” Destination for the Rainier 100 Peaks

A clear, crisp wintery day with blue skies, a mild breeze, and a captivating snow covered landscape made for a successful summit and an all-round gorgeous day in the mountains.

This was my second attempt at Cowlitz Rocks, peak #27 of the Rainier 100 Peaks. Last February a group of us Mountaineers had to turn back due to running out of time. The gate at Longmire was closing at 4PM to downhill traffic. We had to break trail in snowshoes and hit our turn around time far to short of the summit.

Planning and Weather

This would be my first time leading a winter scramble for the Mountaineers. It’s a location I knew and the conditions were looking good. A trip had just has success on the 17th of November. I went ahead and posted it for the 25th. The long-range forecast was looking promising too. And it held. The forecast was for no new snow, it hadn’t snowed in a few days. Snow pack was light but constant from the Paradise parking lot. The temps were predicted to above freezing at the start, and by afternoon the freezing level was supposed to be around 8,000′. The summit is 7,450′. A trip on Friday did not use snowshoes, but it was cooler. We opted to bring snowshoes and crampons. It was predicted to be sunny and only light wind.

Trip Report

The plan was to arrive at Longmire by 8:30AM, consolidate cars, maybe conduct our pre-trip meeting and be ready for the gate at 9AM, or earlier if we were to be lucky. The gate closes to downhill traffic (currently) at 5PM so that means driving down by 4:30 at the latest. I think we were all excited for the trip because everyone was early. Most of us, extremely early! Maybe it was wishful thinking the gate would open before 9AM. It didn’t!

While Cowlitz Rocks is less than 8 miles round trip and about 2,400′ gain, it’s not necessarily and easy peak in Winter. The trip is confined to the 9AM to 5PM gate window (sometimes less), and snow/weather conditions. It’s not a slam dunk.

We were fortunate to get a great weather day and good snow conditions. 

Our plan came together and we headed up to Paradise. We were walking by 9:30AM. We opted to carry snowshoes. The temps were warmer than the day before when Jerry Stein led a group up on Friday. Upon emailing Adam Dodge who was on that trip, and getting some snow beta, we felt it wise to plan for soft snow. 

We ended up booting the entire trip. We made Mazama Ridge in about 40 minutes, our pace a little higher than advertised, but everyone was doing fine. We took a very short break and adjusted layers.  

It was a  breakable crust that sometimes broke through and sometimes didn’t.  Just when you think  you might get a few steps – nope!! 

We decided to stash our snowshoes in a shallow moat next to a big rock about mile 3, at 6,400′. It was 11:15AM.  I didn’t get a photo of the snowshoe stash.

We crossed Steven’s creek around 6,800′. Crossing creeks is never trivial, but this crossing felt about as good and safe as any could. Shortly after crossing the creek we stashed our poles and donned our helmets, ice aces, and crampons for the final 500′ of climbing which was steep but not overly so. We were walking on snow covered rocks so careful attention was needed.

Crampons and ice ax provided a level of security. We encountered  few intermittent spots that were very firm and icy, which reaffirms the decision to err on the side of safety.

We made the summit at 12:30PM.

There was a chilly breeze when we first summited, but it died down it was quite comfortable for a short while. We enjoyed the summit for 30 minutes and headed down. I think we were all starting to get cold. A couple of us found deeper pockets in the snow near buried rocks. We could see Mount Adams, Hood and Helens.

Back at our snowshoes we switched back to poles and boots. There was still a firm crust of snow that behaved about the same as our ascent. Back at the cars by 3PM. 

Really couldn’t have asked for a better day for this 8 mile, 2,400′ gain, and 5.5 hour day.