I headed up to Sourdough ridge from the Sunrise parking lot with the rest of the hoards of visitors. There was a few small patches of snow getting to the ridge, but nothing major and it was fairly compacted from the hoards of people heading up hill. From here I headed west across the ridge towards frozen lake. Overall the majority of the trail was snow free minus a few small snow patches. The largest snow patch was right before Frozen lake, and was so well worn in it was a breeze.
Mt. Rainier from the Sourdough Ridge trail.
looking north from Sourdough Ridge.
Almost to Frozen Lake from the Sourdough Ridge trail.
The largest snow patch when approaching Frozen Lake.
Frozen Lake
From Frozen Lake I headed up towards burroughs, and it wasn't long till I was slogging through snow following the earlier tracks. When I actually started on the side hill I ran into some very nice Volunteer Rangers and talked to one of the ladies about the trail ahead. Burrough's slope was very slushy, so it took a lot of kicks to get a good enough hold on the slope... So shortly after the 1st ranger I decided to turn around and head towards Skyscraper pass through the lower snowfields. Mt. Fremont I was hoping would become less crowded later in the evening...
On the Burroughs mountain trail between the 2 rangers. The lead ranger was marking where to cut, and the following ranger was cutting the path. I turned around here... Not to farther along you are traversing above the cliff bands, and the snow was really slippery and slushy on top.
Skyscraper Mountain and Pass from the Burroughs trail.
I headed through a lot of snow all the way to the jct to the Northern Loop trail. Here is where all recent tracks stopped and from this point on any side hill I had to kick in new footings, because they were all sloped out from the melting of the snow. This really slowed the upward progress to a slow crawl at points... The further out of Berkley Park you got, the more the snow became patchy instead of being consistent snow fields. Towards the top I saw a couple mountain goats and then before the last snow crossing I saw a huge herd of mountain goats below.
The snow walk through the Wonderland trail begins...
The 2 rangers up on Burroughs digging away.
Woo Hoo! A dry patch.
Looking down into Berkley park.
One of the several snowfields I had to kick steps into on the way up...
Fremont Lookout in the background.
Another snow free section on the way up!
The sketchy part of the last crossing for me was that it was steep, and a long snowfield if something went wrong. A little more than half of it was along the steep slope, then you had to climb straight up and over the rounded over cornice to get safely to the other side. All the footings were melted away, and I had to kick in new foot holds every step of the way... From the pass it was gorgeous views in every direction. I decided not to summit Skyscraper Mt. because I was low on food, and decided it was best to head straight back since I was hungry.
A mountain goat, one of many.
A video of a Huge herd of Mt. Goats migrating across the slope under Skyscraper Mountain.The great views from Skyscraper Pass.
Semi-trip report and views from a couple parts of the trail.
On the way back I finally ran into the first person heading out that way, since I had been in complete solitude from the turn off to Skyscraper Mt. I meandered back to the junction by Fremont and Burroughs. From here to the car it was easy sailing and closer to 95% snow free.
Oddities on the Wonderland, shortly before the junction to Berkley Park Camp.
Sunrise's parking lot is nearly empty...
Sunrise's meadow.
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