Distance: 13.7 mi.
Elevation Gain: 4700 ft.
Nancy and I met at the Mowich Lake trailhead a bit after 9 AM and it was already jam packed with people, although there were plenty of parking spots along the road (National Park Pass required). We walked through the campground and began hiking right (south) along the Spray Park Trail. We stayed left at a couple trail splits and then began climbing switchbacks up to Spray Park. For how many people we saw at the lot, this trail wasn’t particularly busy. We turned right (south) at the very obvious cairn marking the unmaintained trail toward Echo and Observation Rock.
The climber’s trail was mostly easy to follow, although we should have gotten on snow a bit earlier to avoid climbing steep scree only to traverse unnecessarily on steep snow. We brought microspikes but aluminum crampons would have been better. After our high eastward traverse of the Frett Glacier we continued climbing clockwise (south-southwest) on and off firm snow and rock.
We climbed our steepest snow section of the day just below (north of) the southeast ridge of Observation Rock. From here we dropped our gear and continued on rock to the summit of Observation, which was a 2nd class scramble. We accidentally climbed the false summit on the right (east) side first, but that was a perfectly fun side scramble and it was easy to get between them. Unfortunately our views were mostly obscured by low clouds.
We returned to our stuff and then tried avoiding the steep snow by staying on rock. The scree between Observation and Echo was pretty easy to downclimb because it was mostly soft, loose pumice. We continued on rock for most of the ridge between Observation and Echo Rock but did briefly drop back onto the Frett Glacier rather than traversing on steep scree. There was an obvious boot track back up the scree toward the south ridge of Echo Rock. Although the scramble looks improbable from below it was pretty easy to follow the boot track and there were only a couple 3rd class moves. The rock was very crumbly so we tried to stay out of each others’ fall zones. Luckily the clouds had burned off a bit and we had amazing views of Mount Rainier’s Liberty Cap Glacier. We witnessed an excessively long-lasting ice and rock slide off the glacier while we were up on Echo, which made the Liberty Ridge route look pretty unappetizing.
After snapping some great photos on top, we decided to take the Frett Glacier back down. We did cross one crevasse that was barely open on the surface but who knows what was lurking underneath. Most parties don’t rope up on this glacier but it might be prudent to do so, especially this late in the season. We followed previous boot tracks a bit too far to the right (east) on our descent and had to do a funny little traverse back to the west, but it wasn’t difficult. Using our earlier GPS track we met back up with the dirt boot track back out to the Spray Park Trail. By this point in the evening there were very few hikers remaining so we enjoyed the gentle hike out at golden hour and managed to make it back to our cars before sunset.
Since it was Sunday night there were a couple sites open at the walk-up campsite but we decided to just sleep in our cars and there were a couple other parties doing the same. Although sleeping in your car isn’t technically allowed inside the park boundary, we could have driven past the boundary if we had been hassled by rangers. As it was, no one bothered us and we left early the following morning to climb Pinnacle Peak and The Castle.
(Download the free Gaia GPS app on your phone to view tracks and then get a Gaia GPS membership if you want offline access. Discount below!)
Gear Used:
- Aluminum ice axe
- Day pack
- Gaiters (Nancy)
- Glacier glasses
- GPS
- Helmet
- Microspikes (Aluminum crampons would have been better)
- Trail runners
- Trekking poles
- Water drops/filter
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