Mount Rose summit in the winter

I tried to summit Mount Rose last week but I had to turn back because it seemed too dangerous to be up there alone in the snow. This week ADrewzki joined me and we made it to the summit together.

I met up with fellow nwhiker ADrewzki, at the god awful hour of 8am. Ok, well maybe 8am is not so bad, but I’ve been sleeping in a lot this winter. This was my earliest start since my pre-dawn hike up Mount Ellinor. We knew this was going to be a wet trip so we both left our DSLR’s at home and opted to carry point and shoots instead. We started hiking at 9am.


There was more snow on the trail today then there was last week. We put on snowshoes at about 3,500 feet. There was very little sign of my footprints from the week before. I thought I saw some of my dogs tracks though. On the ridge the snow was deep, but it was not snowing, instead we were pelted with sleet.
We had to pick our way through the snow very carefully when we up on the ridge. I was glad that ADrewzki broke the trail and found all the soft spots for me. ADrewzki was happy when he saw the false summit. I never noticed that Mount Rose had a false summit until today when I saw it covered in snow.

It took us 3 hours and 15 minutes to reach the summit at about 12:15. The summit was cold and windy and we did not dare risk venturing out on the snow-covered summit rock. All of my summit pictures are blurry from the rain and sleet. I just could not wipe it off my lens fast enough to take a picture. One problem was that I had nothign to dry it with as all my clothinw was wet and I forgot to pack a bath cloth. We did get a glimpe of the lake below, in spite of the foul conditions. It was too cold to eat lunch on the summit, so we headed back down to horse camp to gulp down our sandwiches in the rain.

We opted to take the longer route both up and back. The trip back was easier because we could follow our tracks. We had to do a fair amount of routefinding on the way up so that we could avoid stepping in voids under the snow such as tree wells and holes next to rocks.

As we headed back down through the forest below the ridge, the trees began bombing us with huge chunks of shedding snow. I am amazed that neither of us got hit. All those tree bombs and the constant rain kept us moving all day.

My rain gear failed, my top and pants were soaked but at least my feet stayed dry, so I was warm enough. When I got home, I was surprised to find that water had gotten under the cover for the USB port on my GPS, that has never happened before. This was one soggy trip!

I left my dog behind and she was not happy when I went out the door with my pack on. When I got back home and walked in the door with my pack on, she went crazy! Poor doggie, I had put her outside until she calmed down.

The news said we got 3/4 of and inch of rain today.

9.2 miles RT
3,400 feet elevation gain
73 miles on my waterproof boots
(once again I avoided getting blisters by wearing super thin dress socks under my regular socks)




Track log


Snow on the ridge


Summit rock, water on my lens




On the ridge



On the summit