Noodle Posted September 11, 2007 Share Posted September 11, 2007 Trip: Ruth Mountain - Date: 8/30/2007 Trip Report: With Thursday off of work and a golden weather forecast, I convinced my buddy John to abandon his house painting project for a day and climb Ruth Mountain. We left Kirkland at 6:30 and arrived at the Hannegan Pass trailhead at about 9:00 after a short stop at the Glacier ranger station. By 9:30 we were moving easily up the valley, almost imperceptively gaining elevation, and slowing only enough to avoid the large piles of horse poo. We reached Hannegan Pass at 11:15, and consulted the route description. Things got slightly confusing due to the spider web of paths, but the key here is to drop down, heading towards the large knob (pt 5930) in the ridge southeast of the pass and the large gash heading straight up it towards the hourglass-shaped rubble pile. This gully is a rutty, muddy, slick mess. Not especially difficult, but entirely unpleasant; and coming back down it was definitely the crux of the entire trip. We were glad we didn't have overnight packs! After huffing up the gully, we rounded the knob on the east side and crossed the very pleasant saddle which lead us up the rocky lower portion of Ruth. We only had two liters of water each, and it was pretty hot; so we filled our bottles with snow when we stopped to rope up (1:10 PM, 5950 feet). The remainder of the route we just followed the path of least resistance to the summit on mildly soft snow, with crampons on. Just downhill of the large rock outcropping there are some crevasses running perpendicular, but we just stayed under them and headed off to the right to continue up the ridge to the summit, which we reached at about 2 PM. I have to say that the views on this climb are probably the most spectacular I've yet seen. Both John and I were totally in awe at the summit view, especially Shuksan. Every direction offered vast views to lofty, rugged, snow and glacier-clad mountains. I'll let the photos speak for themselves... Looking east from Ruth Mountain. Can someone ID these peaks for me? Panoramic looking north Ruth Creek valley Summit Icy peak from the summit The return trip was largely uneventful. I refilled my bottles with snow, and John opted to fill his bottles with water from a snowmelt pool next to the trail on the northeast side of Pt 5930, topping it off with some iodine tablets for good measure. John took a nasty spill in the gully, bruising his hand but otherwise escaping unscathed from the unauthorized trail dance. Let's just say that the walk back down the valley is the longest 3 miles ever. Kirkland to Trailhead: 2 hrs 30 min Trailhead to Hannegan Pass: 1 hr 45 min Hannegan Pass to Glacier: 1 hr 35 min Glacier to Summit: 40 min Gear Notes: Gear – Crampons, ax, rope, pooper scooper, etc Approach Notes: Plenty of water opportunities Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plexus Posted September 11, 2007 Share Posted September 11, 2007 I climbed this six years ago today. I know, it's a very mixed day in my personal history. Hope you took the time to pick some blueberries on the knob. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rad Posted September 11, 2007 Share Posted September 11, 2007 Pickets to the East. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericb Posted September 11, 2007 Share Posted September 11, 2007 I did this with my wife a couple summers ago and you are right about that gully....I took a couple spills in there as well and had to veggie arrest to avoid injury - I was freaked out about my wife getting hurt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
studklimer Posted September 12, 2007 Share Posted September 12, 2007 I did that earlier this year (may or june?), but it was completely whited-out and we couldn't see anything. Nice to see the pictures of what we could've seen . Nice TR. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noodle Posted September 12, 2007 Author Share Posted September 12, 2007 (edited) Pickets to the East. So would the left group be Redoubt/Spickard and the right group be Whatcom/Challenger, or would it be Whatcom/Challenger and Terror? Edited September 12, 2007 by Noodle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
climbaround Posted September 12, 2007 Share Posted September 12, 2007 Great pictures, I just wish the panoramas were larger so we could see details. I was up there July 11th skiing and wish we'd been earlier so we could have just run up the north face with more snow to facilitate the traverse over, thus avoiding the dreaded knob. The crux for us was traversing firm snow on the east side of the knob without crampons (stupidly left home because we thought the hot day would soften the snow for easy kicking, but a brisk wind and early start made for firm conditions all the way to the summit). I'd been wanting to get up there for years to take in the view and have to agree that it is about as good as it gets, both views and skiing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisa_D Posted September 13, 2007 Share Posted September 13, 2007 I did Ruth earlier this year as a fun family backpacking trip (the gully wasn't too fun with full packs, but it was dry when we did it). We hoped to climb Icy Peak too, but the weather came in and we hiked out. I'll take a stab at naming some of the peaks. On the left are Whatcom Peak and Challenger (with the big glacier). Then the Northern Pickets: Ghost, Crooked Thumb, Phantom, Swiss, Fury. Southern Pickets: you can see Inspiration Peak and the two Macmillan spires. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noodle Posted September 13, 2007 Author Share Posted September 13, 2007 Great pictures, I just wish the panoramas were larger so we could see details. Check out all the photos on my Picasaweb site. I've also uploaded three full sized panoramics (see links below). You can't view them full size on the web, but if you click "Download Photo" you'll get the full size. http://picasaweb.google.com/adamlandefeld/RuthMountain8302007/photo#5108814520945512994 http://picasaweb.google.com/adamlandefeld/RuthMountain8302007/photo#5108814787233485394 http://picasaweb.google.com/adamlandefeld/RuthMountain8302007/photo#5109513998281986098 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmarch Posted September 13, 2007 Share Posted September 13, 2007 if you want to ski, ruth is da bomb early season check it http://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7960385&highlight=ruth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lazyboy Posted September 17, 2007 Share Posted September 17, 2007 Panorama from Ruth with Labels Place the cursor over the photo to see the labels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noodle Posted September 18, 2007 Author Share Posted September 18, 2007 Nice panoramic, thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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