Trip Report
Alpine Scramble: Mount Ararat - Satulick Mountain Traverse
A great conditioner with frosty views in the SW corner of Mt. Rainier National Park.
Dave Morgan
- Sat, Nov 16, 2019
- Winter Scramble - Mount Ararat
- Mount Ararat
- Scrambling
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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Surprisingly good weather (only a few snowflakes) with snow free trails and intermittent snow/frost above ~5600’ and on northern exposures.
A great workout traverse of ~4400’ gain over ~15 miles. After staging a car at Longmire we headed out from the Kautz Creek trailhead at 7:30AM. After summiting Mt Ararat (via it’s WSW aspect) we ran the ridge to Satulick Mountain before regaining the Wonderland Trail near Squaw Lakes. We encountered an interesting rock feature along this ridge (close to where the Kautz Creek trail crosses it). It appears a chunk of the south facing cliff had broken off (millennia ago) and left a chasm just wide enough to walk through (between the broken off piece of rock, and the face created by the cleavage). Here is Sergey Lazutin’s photo of this spot:
Total time was 8.5 hours, with just over 3 hours to Mt Ararat, and 2 hours from Ararat to Satulick Mountain. Photos from this and other trips to this venue can be seen here.