Snowfree for first 2 miles, then snow. Be ready for route finding and steep snow slopes.

Yet another sunny Mtn Day, what luck! Eagle is 3.5 miles to the saddle, which has a great almost 360 degree view. You hit snow about 1.5 miles up the trail, which has 2 HUGE blow downs...which won't last long after I tell Kev on Trails! The snow is navigable to the first bridge some 2 miles up trail. We decided to stop there since the drop to the bridge was a 5' wall of snow with a rushing rapid underneath. Spooky! This one may take awhile to melt being in the trees. Still worth it and a great workout! Check out the Nisqually River while you're there...the water is running high with glacial flour and tumbling boulders. Happy 100th Mt Rainier!

Snow starts before the two bridge crossings, but there's plenty of tracks to follow to the saddle. the snow level is low enough to expose some fun boulder problems at the base of the short rock cliff on the way to the summit ridge. The rock wall is completely snow free, allowing for several different easy to moderate 30 foot routes up to the ridge. Plenty of snow along the ridge on the way to the summit.

Even if the weather was cruddy, we were getting cabin fever! Diane and I decided to head up to Wahpenayo Peak for the day. The Eagle Peak trail is in good shape, and was a pretty lonely place! Gray, threatening skies greeted us at the trailhead and our boots were hitting the mud at around 9:00am. As we got up to where the trail runs into the creek tumbling down, we were wondering how much snow would be left up top. The creek was running huge... bigger that we've ever seen it. Several smaller streamlets were coming down the slopes in spots that normally don't carry water! We were suprised though to find solid snow covering the trail starting at about 4000 feet. We trampled along the well-worn groove in the snow up to the stream crossing at 4300 feet. From here we took off heading straight for the notch to the south of Chutla Peak. A lot of snow still up at treeline. And treeline is where the hike ended! It was lunchtime (about 11:30) and after sitting around munching a soggy Essential Sandwich we decided to make a short day of it. The clouds were low, thick, and misting on us. Besides... we couldn't see more than 50 feet ahead of us! We made it back down in record time and still had time to mow the lawn. Yippee! -Kurt & Diane Nelson

Trail in excellent shape, no problems whatsoever. A nice way to get great views of the Mountain and environs, without doing the drive to paradise.