Trip type: scramble
Special gear: ice axe, snowshoes
Elevation gain: approx. 2,080 feet
Round-trip distance: approx. 7.5 miles
Car-to-car time: 5 hours 11 minutes
USGS quad: Mount Rainier East
In area: Mount Rainier National Park
We had intermittent low visibility all day, without the GPS navigation might have been a challenge, the nearby landmarks weren't always obvious. The route we took was mostly a snowshoe with one short section of easy rock scrambling around 7,040' on the ridge SW of Cowlitz Rocks. The summit itself was a walk-up with cornices and a steep drop off on the east side.
References
- climbingwashington.com: Cowlitz Rocks
- turns-all-year.com: Paroramic Picture of Mount Rainier and Cowlitz Rocks
Maps
- Online map with route drawn on it: Cowlitz Rocks from Paradise map
Travel Times
Car-to-car time: 5 hours 11 minutes- 2 hours 54 minutes ascending from Paradise to summit of Cowlitz Rocks
- 56 minutes descending from summit of Cowlitz Rocks to where we stopped for lunch at creek crossing
- 1 hour 3 minutes descending from where we stopped for lunch at creek crossing to Paradise
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