With weather conditions looking dismal throughout the Cascades Scott and I decided to head up to Rock Mountain on Stevens Pass. Situated barely east of the cascade crest, the forecast in this region seemed the most promising. Once arriving at the trail we found it to be straight to the point. Exactly 99 switchbacks over a 5000 vertical foot gain led us directly towards the alpine. Within 2 hours we were skinning through snow-covered trees from Stevens Pass’s power-line, clear-cut and road-littered terrain below.
Heading up Towards the Summit of Rock Mountain From Highway 2
The climb was easy, though somewhat circuitous. Sticking to the well-beaten summer trail of many switchbacks, we made our way up lightly-forested slopes. Before long we had broken into alpine, skinning along a mellow ridge. Weather seemed to improve as we climbed, as the occasional patch of blue sky burned through the dense cloud deck.
By the time we reached the summit, clouds had started blocking our visibility. Though we had skinned up in the sun we found ourselves occasionally in whiteout conditions. We had hopes that the conditions would improve and decided to take a break. Hanging out on the summit we could see what the weather was doing.
Our hopes of getting views of Glacier Peak and the Dakobed Range to the north slowly faded as we quickly became consumed by the low lying clouds.
Snowboarding Down in Powder Snow
After waiting for well over an hour, we realized that: (1) we were sitting in a cloud, and (2) that cloud was lingering on the summit without plans of going anywhere anytime soon. Away from the summit, however, we hoped to find unobstructed sunshine.
So, we decided it was time to go. We rode off one at a time, enjoying the powder conditions and the wide open alpine bowl.
The snow was better then we had expected occasionally riding though avi debris and dodged the sporadic patch of trees. Before long we were at the edge of Rock Lake 1500 feet below.
From Rock Lake we skinned back up to our path we put in earlier. With clouds giving way to unfiltered sunshine we occasionally glanced back at the alpine and our two tracks. We had scored with great weather compared to the nasty clouds in every other direction. We were stoked in the endless options of terrain available from mellow to aggressive lines on Rock Mountain.
Walking down the Rock Mountain Trail to Highway 2
Within a few feet the snowpack had dwindled to dirt. We had just ridden over 3000 vert of powder conditions before getting back onto the trail. Standing 2000 feet above the valley below we had a clear view of the Chiwaukum Mountains. Climbing down we enjoyed the endless switchbacks with boots on our feet and boards on our back.
Thank you for reading this trip on Rock Mountain near Stevens Pass. If you want to see more ski tours within the Stevens Pass Backcountry check out this link.