Mount McCausland Attempt

Lucas Peterson
Oct 29, 2025
2 min read

Updated: 2 days ago

10/30/2025

I made an attempt on Mount McCausland via the Smithbrook Trailhead but was thwarted by deep snow on the final slopes to the summit.

An early heavy dump of snow had left the Cascades blanketed in white by late October. I tried driving up to the Smithbrook trailhead, but being the cautious snow driver I am, I decided to park on the roadside after I encountered the first areas of slick snow on the roadway.

I had made it about 1.3 miles up the road, which left me with an additional 1.4 miles of road walking each way. I felt a little silly marching up the road as other cars were easily making it to the trailhead, but I always err on the safe side when it comes to snow driving.

When I reached the official trailhead, I was pleased to find an established trough made by earlier hikers. The snow got deeper and deeper as I made it up to the pass above Lake Valhalla wearing microspikes. Here, I finally put on snowshoes and continued following a less-defined path up in the direction of Mount McCausland. As the slope began to steepen, the previous tracks stopped and I was forced to soldier on in the deep snow. I was a bit concerned about slides, but the snow seemed quite supportive. My biggest issue was the occasional hip deep post hole as I stepped into various voids on the hillside. One particularly deep one was my queue to turn back and save Mount McCausland for another day. Despite having to turn around, I had made it up to an awesome viewpoint to take in the wintery scene. I was really impressed by the views of Lichtenberg Mountain and the lake below.