Distance: 7 mi.
Elevation Gain: 1500 ft.
We started off our day at the Sunrise Visitor Center in Mount Rainier National Park (park pass required) around 11 AM. We followed signs toward Fremont Lookout from the trailhead and turned left at the Sourdough Ridge Trail which climbed toward Frozen Lake (I started the GPS a little late). There were a few small patches of snow but none over the trail. We turned right (north) after Frozen Lake and did a rising traverse to the northwest toward the Fremont Lookout.
There were quite a few people on the trail on this nice weekday, so we stepped aside as needed and most folks were wearing face coverings. We reached the lookout at 12:15. We climbed the stairs to enjoy pretty views of Mount Rainier and the surrounding park, then had lunch on the rocks below.
I wanted to summit Mount Fremont and Katie wasn’t too interested, so I left the trail on the north side of the summit to climb sticky talus, then descended soft scree on the south side to meet up with Katie before Frozen Lake.
After passing Frozen Lake we stayed on the Sourdough Ridge Trail past the west spur trail to the parking lot so that we could summit Antler Peak. We turned left (north) off the trail below Antler and climbed a steep heather slope toward a break in the trees. Then we turned left (northwest) on the southeast ridge of the peak. We walked on scree in and out of brush until we reached the summit, which was surprisingly steep off the other side.
We retraced our steps back to the Sourdough Ridge Trail, where we met up with a park ranger who gently scolded us for traveling off trail so close to the parking lot. We reassured him that we were specifically choosing non-vegetated areas to step. After a friendly goodbye we took the east spur trail back to the parking lot and reached the trailhead at 3:15 PM.
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Gear Used:
- Day pack
- Trail runners
- Trekking poles
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