[Joe]

The parking area is located about 100 yards north of the trailhead, right at milepost 9.  I started hiking in a light mist that stopped after a half hour.  There were a few lingering snow patches near the trailhead.

Yellow Violets and some Trillium were in bloom along the lower trail.  Vanilla Leaf was just starting to bloom.


A little further up, there was a lot of Creeping Raspberry along the trail.


I hit the first big patch of snow at 4100 feet.  I missed a switchback buried under the snow in this section.  Heading back on a slight raising traverse, I found bare trail again at 4300 feet.  The trail was mostly snow free until 4700 feet, then continuous snow to the lookout.  I generally  followed the summer trail route until the trail starts to switch back up the west side of Shriner Peak.  At this point, I headed northeast to the ridge and followed the ridge to the top.


Summit views, with a little imagination, you might be able to make out Mt. Rainier.


On the way down the clouds lifted some, offering a little better view.


A comparison of the same section of trail, the first on the way up and the second on the way down


The Mt. Rainier hiking book says the hike is 8 miles RT, Green Trail maps list the hike at 8.4 miles RT, my GPS tracked a slightly longer trail.

Trip Stats:  9.2 miles with 3470 feet elevation gain



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Joe

[TrailPair]

Was the snow rock hard like we had on Lookout Mt, or were you able to plunge step down? It looks like you made a good choice for the conditions today. 

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This thing called work is interfering with my play

[dkemp]

Nice.  Wish I could have joined you for this one.

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Get up early, go all day, come home tired.

[Opus]

Good report!    I've been thinking about Shriner peak for a long time waiting to get up there.  Glad you were able to have a successful lookout trip, unlike our Lookout mountain attempt.

[Joe]

TP - The snow was perfect for kicking steps.  I didn't bring an ice ax and trekking poles were sufficient.

On the way down, the slope was the right steepness and the snow was perfect for standing glissades.  I had a fun descent in many places.

Opus - hopefully you will pick a better day and be able to enjoy the great views.

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Joe

[Ingunn]

Wow - this is on my must-do list...but in summer conditions! I'm impressed!   Thanks for the trip report, too bad about the (lack of) views.

[Magellan]

I thouroughly enjoyed this trip when I did it a couple of years ago.  You got to skip some of the wandering and head straight up the ridge.  I wanted to visit the sekrit lakes to the SE but I got spooked by what I thought was a bear when I was going cross-country throught the bushes and trees.  One 'Grrrrrrrr' was all I needed to turn around.