Goat Rocks Wilderness beta:

I have been contemplating this expedition for a few years and am getting the itch to do it. I hike extensively in the Goat Rocks in the summer and have always imagined the great riding that could be done in the snowgrass flat basin, Cispus basin, goat lake basin and the the Jordan basin not to mention dropping the back side of Old Snowy onto the Packwood glacier and McCall Glacier.

My idea is to skin into Snowgrass Flat from the trail head and base camp for two nights and from camp make day trips up to Old Snowy and then go over into the Cispus Basin. The terrain would be insane and the scenery with snow coverage epic. I would like to take an extra day to follow the rout of the Lilly Basin trail over to Goat Lake, then cross over into the Jordan basin which has some amazing terrain. Possible camp at one of the fine horse camps down in the timber then a quick, easy ride/skin out to Berry Patch trailhead.

I`m going to be talking to the Forest Service at the Cowlitz Valley Ranger station about the roads to see if the road to Chambers Lake/ snowgrass trailhead is open and if not, when. This will be a trial run for a major winter trek I want to do and that is a splitboard trek from Snowgrass all of the way to White Pass ski area.

Ive never read a trip report om this so its got to be something rarely done which is why it appeals to me. If anybody has any beta they could provide about this trip please share. I am very familiar with the area and hike it several times each summer so route finding and knowing the lay of the land isn't a huge issue. Doing it with snow cover is a new experience however. I do hold both a Canadian level 1 and USFS level 1 avalanche cert so am avy savvy and the terrain back there looks very intense from an avy perspective.

Just looking for some thoughts and advice from the more experienced backcountry riders on hear. Thanks in advance.

SW

You should check out this recent trip report:

www.turns-all-year.com/skiing_snowboardi...ex.php?topic=33711.0

I did virtually the same trip in April 1987. According to my notes, we had to hike a couple miles of unplowed road to reach the Snowgrass Flats trail at that time.

The traverse from White Pass to Goat Rocks was first skied (as a round trip) in March 1953 by Chuck and Marion Hessey, Dorothy Egg, and Tom Lyon. You can find some notes about it here:

alpenglow.org/ski-history/notes/movie/de-1953-goatrocks.html
alpenglow.org/ski-history/notes/comm/egg-dorothy.html
alpenglow.org/ski-history/notes/comm/lyon-tom.html

We've gone in with skis to camp at Snowgrass a couple of times.  The first year, we severely overestimated how far we would be able to drive snowfree (in early June) resulting in several miles of road walking just to get to the trailhead.  The second time (around 4th of July) we hit it pretty good.  I think it's probably just about impossible to drive to the trailhead, and then skin from there because of how the trail drops down to Goat Cr, and then climbs back up from there.  But the trail is not bad for hiking.  I think Cispus Basin may generally melt a bit quicker because of the southerly exposure - that was pretty dry when we went, but that was early July.  Both of those times being bigger than average snow years.

Of course this year is completely different, so may be a good year for early road access to alpine snow.  Beautiful area as you know, and difficult enough to get in that not many people go.  A winter trip would be pretty epic.  I think the Hummel brothers have done quite a bit up there including winter time - I recall seeing an inspiring website of theirs when I was looking for beta about the area.

That was really neat to read about the 1953 trip - thanks Lowell!

My dad and I did a similar tour on memorial day weekend '71.  Johnson creek road was snow covered just before the tight zig-zags.  We short cut through forest directly to chambers lake.  We ascended Ives and snowy and skied perfect corn in ànkle high leathers.

The most timely and accurate info for southern WA USFS roads can usually be found online at Packwood Highway Shopper (updates Wednesdays).  This week's report is unusually old, but a month ago one could drive past Hugo Lake, within a few miles of the Snowgrass trailhead.  www.highwayshopper.com/WPSX08.html

One of my fav places. I've had 20-30 ski trips into there; although it has been a few years now since I've gone. A traverse from the n. to s. tieton is very cool as well. We did that many years ago, and it takes you across all the main summits of the range without having to backtrack. The trip from White Pass isn't too bad either. I used to think that there was too much forest, but now I realize it isn't so much. It's a nice trip; although I would prefer to go out another way rather than return to White Pass. Ha. I think that is just the traverser speaking in me though.