Paradise Glacier, Glacier Vista Snowshoe — Friday, Apr. 8, 2005

Mount Rainier Area > SW - Longmire/Paradise

Cowlitz Rocks (7450ft), Mt. Rainier area - 4/9/2005 Charlie, John, Oli, Jo, Claes and I headed out for an early spring snow shoe outing to Cowlitz Rocks (actual out/back route in red on JPG map). We experienced all types of weather on this very picturesque and enjoyable outing. Drive: To Paradise parking lot in Mt. Rainier National Park. Our route led down the road beyond Paradise parking lot. The road has now been plowed up the mountain to within 200 - 300 feet of the Paradise parking lot. You can clearly see the ""old"" snow (about 3 ft) with the ""new"" 3 ft layer of snow on top. We shoveled a staircase up the 5 ft deep snowbank just prior to the Paradise River crossing and headed due east to Mazama Ridge. Once on the ridge, head NE to the head of the Stevens Creek cirque, then north passing point 6252 on your right, then past point 6766 on your right and then NNE to Cowlitz Rocks, staying between the Paradise and Williwakas glaciers. The scenery from Mazama Ridge to Cowlitz Rocks is pretty incredible right now. Huge untracked snow bowls fall away on your right leading down to the steep dropoffs into Stevens Canyon and rise to your left up the east flank of Mazama Ridge. Defining the skyline on your left is the summit mound of Rainier and the various cleavers on the SE side of the mountain. Rising straight ahead are the craggy rocks of Little Tahoma Peak with the ice tumble of the Ingraham glacier at its base. The final climb up to Cowlitz Rocks summit is a steep walkup. However, and this applies to many points along this route, the summit and ridge cornices are VERY pronounced , and the climbing ranger warned us that they are unconsolidated and likely to break off even further back than they normally would. The cornice on top of Cowlitz is very large, and it's a good 200 - 300 ft drop off the back onto a steep snow field. Good way to lose 500 ft of altitude quickly. We stayed well back from the cornice. We had lunch on top of Cowlitz rocks and watched the weather turn from warm sunshine to a windy, cloudy, snowy day. The weather change took about 15 minutes. I went from my two light top layers and nylon pants / longies to wearing nearly everything in my pack in that 15 minute transition. I was one fleece layer and a balaclava away from having all my packed gear on my body. Visibility went from 20 miles to 50 feet in that same time period. The other thing we noticed - the cornice ridge on Cowlitz that was so clearly visible on our ascent was literally undetectable after the weather came it. We knew right where it was, were looking right at it, and could NOT see it from 15 feet away! Packing up we headed down into the relative shelter of the Stevens Creek valley to retrace our ascent - being careful to maintain visual contact among the members of the party. The visibility increased as we descended, and when we got back to the car we were treated to re-emergence of sunshine and the play of sun and cloud shadow on the new snow covering the Tatoosh Range. Spectacular. We left the car at 9:00, made the summit of Cowlitz Rocks at noon and returned to the car at 3:00. Total miles - about 7. Total elevation gain - about 2000 ft.