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Winter Scramble - Ruby Mountain

Ruby Mountain snow scramble via Happy Creek approach

Rodica Manole Rodica Manole
April 06, 2025
  • Road suitable for all vehicles

  • Snow patches started around 3400 ft. We did put snowshoes on arount 3600 ft. Great continous snowpack from that point. Removed snowsoes around 6100 ft and booted up the rest of the route. No crampons were needed, great pack for plunging steps on our way down and didn't put snowshoes back on until around 3600 ft to avoid postholing in a short section. 

    There was a tricky section around 3600-3700 ft consisting of a boulder field with partial snow coverage making travel slow and prone to dangerous postholing . 

Beautiful day to be in the North Cascades with many, many skiers getting turns on Ruby Mountain. We only met one another party of snowshoers while we were pushing for the summit. Somehow, even though the skiers were faster up high while getting off the summit, we managed to pass most of them on our way down in the sections where they couldn't rely on skis anymore. 

Started around 9 AM and back to the cars right after 6. Pretty straight forward route except a short section around 3600 ft where we more or less followed the climbers booth path, found two obvious cairins  signaling the need to traverse to the west over a boulder field with soft snow sections requiring careful assessment and travel to prevent dangerous postholling. On our way down we avoided this section by doing the traverse ~200 ft lower . The rapid snowmelt will continue to affect the route conditions.

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