Trip Report
Alpine Scramble - The Palisades & Marcus Peak
Just a terrific day (except for the mosquitoes) to scramble 2 of the Mt. Rainier 100. Six Olympia scrambling students successfully completed a rock scramble as they work towards graduation
Paul Kallmann
- Sun, Aug 7, 2022
- Alpine Scramble - The Palisades & Marcus Peak
- The Palisades & Marcus Peak
- Scrambling
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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All trails were in great shape. Climbers path to Green Park saddle is visible. Gully up to Marcus was passable and Palisades was a straightforward boot path. Mosquitoes are out in full force though.
We arrived at the Sunrise Ridge parking lot at 8:30 and were on the trail by 8:45. We wandered down the trail to Clover Lake and made our way up to Hidden Lake without any problems aside from the mosquitoes. From Hidden Lake, we went up the climbers path to Green Park Saddle then turned to the south for our scramble up Marcus Peak.
Like I had done previously, we stayed to a gully on the left up to the summit block itself. We then attacked the summit block by going straight up the spine about halfway and then veering to our right through a few trees until we got to the top. We took our obligatory photos before descending the way we came.
We then ascended Palisades Peak by going up a faint boot path. The scramble up Palisades itself was unremarkable though it was hot by mid afternoon. We got to our summit, took more obligatory photos and then back down to the Green Park Saddle. On our way down we stopped at Hidden Lakes for a quick swim, and then headed out the Palisades Lake trail.
On our way out, we were greeted by a lone black bear. We got some beautiful photos of it before heading out.
It was 9 hour hour car to car trip, but we did stop for the swim on our way out. Aside from the mosquitoes, it was a terrific trip.