Corral Peak

On the summit

Oct 11, 2026

27 miles, 7kft gain

Survey Results: 7994.2ft +/-0.3ft NAVD88. Corral moves up to number 199 on WA top 200 list

There are still a few edge case peaks left on the WA Top 200 list that may or may not qualify. LiDAR data was published for all of WA by 2024 and analyzed by Kyle Bretherton and Andrew Kirmse. This analysis, combined with around 30 ground surveys I conducted with GNSS equipment, established a mostly-complete list of the top 200. But there still remained a few edge cases near the cutoff of 400ft prominence or near the edge of elevation for inclusion. Corral was number 200, but within a few feet of the cutoff. If LiDAR had sampled a cairn or bush on the summit (which sometimes happens), that could push it off the list.

The route

In October 2019 I did a big 76-mile 2-day hike to bag a bunch of top 200 peaks around Corral, but I skipped Corral since I didn’t think it had enough prominence to qualify. LiDAR data subsequently showed it had plenty of prominence. So I wanted to go back to climb it and survey it. In October 2025 I attempted to climb it, but the approach road to the Billy Goat trailhead had just received much more snow than expected, so I couldn’t even drive to the trailhead. So I bailed.

This year I decided to go back slightly earlier in the year, mid October instead of late October. A few inches of fresh snow had fallen but this still seemed manageable. I drove to the trailhead Saturday evening and slept a few hours. There was forecast to be high aurora activity that night, so I planned to start up at midnight and do a night hike. But when I got up at midnight it was snowing and raining. This didn’t let up until 3:30am, so I started then.

Hiking out

The trail was in excellent shape, with only a few blowdowns the entire way. There was about 2 inches of snow above 7000ft, but only a trace below that. I hiked the uphills and jogged the downhills, and eventually made it to Larch Pass by 8:15am. There were some colorful larches covered in fresh snow that looked pretty. By 8:45am I reached the summit, which was covered in 3inches of fresh snow and socked in a whiteout.

I mounted the Trimble DA2 GNSS receiver on a flexible leg tripod and soon started logging data. It was pretty cold and windy, and I had underestimated the conditions and didn’t quite prepare for the cold like I should have. I inteneded to collect data for one hour, but after 40 minutes and a lot of jumping jacks I called it good and packed up.

Hiking out

I hustled back down to the trail and jogged back down into the trees. The hike out was easy and I just met two other parties. I was back to the trailhead by 1:30pm and soon driving back. Interestingly, the Rainy Pass trailhead had at least 500 cars parked on the shoulders and even halfway into the road, reducing it to one lane for driving!

I processed results with TrimbleRTX and found Corral is 1.6ft taller than the LiDAR-derived elevation. This bumps it up to number 199 on the Top 200 list and bumps Wallaby down to number 200. This was the last edge-case peak for elevation I needed to survey. But there still exists another edge-case peak for prominence that needs surveying before the list is finalized.

I’ve now climbed 175/200 WA Top 200 peaks.