The 2023-2024 winter had been a relatively unexciting one for me in the mountains. A slow developing snowpack and other commitments had kept me on the sidelines, so I was excited to finally get out with Eric. The weather was more reminiscent of late spring than late winter, with temps soaring to the mid-70s in the western Washington lowlands. Because of this, we had major concerns for avalanche danger, as well just plain bad travel conditions, so we opted to play it safe and went for Goat Mountain near the town of Concrete. The peak promised lots of road walking, but safe slopes and excellent views.
The route begins on a gated logging road which spurs off the Baker Lake Road across from the Grandy Lake Campground. It appears to be an active logging area, and the first few hundred yards were through some unsightly clear cut. After that, the walking was much more pleasant, and I enjoyed crossing the bridge over the rushing Grandy Creek.
We were uncertain if bringing bikes would be beneficial depending on the condition of the road and the elevation of the snowline, and it turns out we wished we had. The road was in great condition, aside from one significant washout at about 1900’ and 2.5 miles that would have required walking the bikes. Snowline was also high. Bikes could have been pushed or ridden to about 3000’. In earlier season or a different snow year, this road would also make a pleasant cross-country ski or ski tour.
Despite our realization that bikes would be useful on this peak, we still very much enjoyed the road walk. We made great progress on the bare road until snow began to pick up in some shaded areas and gradually became consistent at 3000’. It was here that we donned our snowshoes. We were surprised to see that another party had been out (likely the day before) so it was nice to be able to follow the tracks and not work so hard to trail break through the warming snow.
Eventually, we reached the point where the route leaves the road and starts to go straight up the ridge to the summit for the last 1200 or so feet. The tracks from the group before quickly ended and we were left to continue trail breaking on our own. There was some light route finding needed in this section to pick the best route through the small trees, but nothing too bad. The main danger was postholing – even with snowshoes it was a real hazard if we stepped too close to a downed tree or tree well.
After a bit, the post-hole danger eased and we were able to travel quite well on the crusty snow, continuing to stay on the ridge. Before long, the summit was in sight, and we tackled the steepest part of the route before topping out a little less than four hours after leaving the car.
The views were spectacular and 360 degrees. Mount Baker looked huge from this vantage point, Shuksan was extremely pointy, almost the entire western side of the North Cascades was visible, and the view down the Sauk River valley toward Glacier Peak was spectacular. And then if we looked west, the Twin Sisters were prominent, and Puget Sound could be seen in the distance. It was a very worthwhile peak for the winter views alone. We were also amazed at the temperature, it was warm with almost zero wind, and we could have stayed up there comfortably for hours.
Sadly, we eventually had to tear ourselves away and tried our best not to post-hole on the way down. We each had one comical fall through that required some maneuvering to extract our buried snowshoe, but eventually found our way back to the logging road. From there it was a relatively quick walk down, which we enjoyed while ignoring the slight tinge of regret we had for not bringing our bikes.
We got back through the locked gate and to the car 11.8 miles and 8 hours after we left it. I would definitely recommend this peak as a winter destination but would suggest bringing a bike or skis to cut down some of the road walking.
Final Stats: 11.8 miles / 3760 feet of gain
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