Trip Report
Winter Scramble - Mildred Point
A great winter workout with vistas of the Kautz Creek Canyon and Van Trump Park.
Dave Morgan
- Sat, Jan 30, 2021
- Van Trump Park
- Scrambling
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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Surprisingly good conditions with above freezing temperatures on the roads (safe driving conditions), no precipitation (from the trees or skies ;), freezing temperatures after gaining ~500’, and little wind except at the summit. A relatively thin 1.5 feet of fresh snow over a very hard and icy layer below for most of the Rampart Ridge crest.
In spite of overcast skies we had quite a nice views of the Kautz Creek Canyon and Van Trump Park from the summit:
To simplify travel (i.e. side hill traversing due to the icy layer), we kept to the ridge crest rather than following the line of the summer trail. With the bump at 4,952’ this gave us an additional 400’ gain (200’ on ascent, 200’ on descent) for a total of ~3,600’ over 10 miles. As usual, we avoided potential avalanche terrain by keeping to the ridge on the west side of the plateau between 5,500’ and 5,800’. Other than a few persons on descent (the Rampart Ridge Loop from Longmire portion), we saw no other persons the entire day. A total time of 6.5 hours, with 4 hours on the ascent. Photos from this and other trips to this venue can be seen here.