Mildred Point, Mount Rainier National Park: November 21, 2020

We began at Longmire, following the Wonderland Trail northeasterly towards its junction at 1.7 miles with the Van Trump Park trail (marked as also "Comet Falls trail" on some maps. Here we transitioned to our ski gear and began our long uphill skin to Mildred Point via Rampart Ridge.

As we skied along Rampart Ridge we were mostly breaking trail; near where the summer trail ascends steeply via a series of switchbacks we bushwhacked up to the higher ground, using the cliff band on one side as a handrail. We eventually regained the summer trail and began a long traverse to the junction where you can opt to continue straight for Van Trump Park or take a sharp left to ascend through meadows to Mildred Point.

Continuing straight towards Van Trump Park seems ill-advised in wintertime since you pass through a deeply notched gully which could act as a "terrain trap." 

After a couple of sharp switchbacks we gained the meadows below Mildred Point and passed through a winter wonderland of sparkling soft snow. The high ground of Mildred Point is fairly easy to spot and navigate towards, though you must veer climber's right possibly more than you anticipate. There's a flat platform-like viewing spot below and southwest of the true Mildred Point.

We had originally intended to ski in a more northeasterly direction from Mildred Point itself, stopping short of a tree-lined gully with a stream flowing through it; but given the time of day and our fatigue level from miles of breaking trail we opted to mostly retrace our ascent route back to the entrance to the meadow zone. Skiing down and following our original plan would have required an uphill climb to then be able to rejoin our skin track and exit the meadow zone area. 

There is a cliff band running in a northeasterly direction below Mildred Point which we also worked to avoid as we skied down, especially since a fringe of trees obscures the cliffs from view when you are above them (i.e., at Mildred Point itself as we were!)

The return trip required some navigational effort as we didn't wish to retrace our bushwhack near those switchbacks on the summer trail. We found that most of the trail lent itself to skin-less downward gliding with occasional stops to scrub off speed or quad-destroying snowplowing.

There is one uphill section as you return along Rampart Ridge which did require transitioning back to skins but it was pretty obvious. After that section we resumed skin-less gliding downhill, which got a little rougher in the final 2 miles to the Wonderland Trail junction. The trail is narrow and so here it was true survival skiing. Back at the Wonderland Trail we transitioned to carrying our skis and ski boots, retrieving the hiking boots we had stashed at this junction. A quick walk out with the aid of gravity back to the Longmire parking lot, just in time to see the sunset concluded the day.

Camping along Rampart Ridge or even in the meadow zone below Mildred Point to facilitate doing more laps of the meadows on skis would be a fun future endeavor.Mildred Point

  

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