Trip Report
Alpine Scramble - Goat Island Mountain
You can’t get much better than this gorgeous alpine loop. A counterclockwise direction (ENE ridge for the ascent, SW ridge for descent) gave us stunning views of Mt Rainier and Little Tahoma for most of the day, albeit with tons of folks on the final trail hike back to the cars.
Dave Morgan
- Sat, Aug 28, 2021
- Alpine Scramble - Goat Island Mountain
- Goat Island Mountain
- Scrambling
- Successful
-
- Road suitable for all vehicles
-
Other than Fryingpan Creek (and its tributaries) there was zero water available on the route. No snow, no bugs, and cool temps for the early morning ascent.
A great one day trip of ~10 miles and ~3500’ elevation gain. The views are so stunning on the descent that you periodically feel compelled to simply sit down and take it all in:
When descending the SW ridge there are various game trails that tempt you to drop off the east side of the ridge. Although this is a good idea here in there, it worked well to generally stay near the ridge crest until reaching the basin west of the Wonderland Trail:
Crossing Fryingpan Creek up high is a good idea to minimize the effort of finding a reasonable spot to ford. Once across you work towards the Wonderland Trail with lots of rock hopping. The best line keeps the brush to your south, and Fryingpan Creek to your north:
(photo by Tomas Singliar)
A great day in the mountains, with a total trip time of 7 hours and an ascent just under 3 hours. Photos from this and other trips to this venue can be seen here.