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[TR] Glacier Peak - White Chuck/Gerdine/Cool Glaciers 9/2/2012


timmy_t

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Trip: Glacier Peak - White Chuck/Gerdine/Cool Glaciers

 

Date: 9/2/2012

 

Trip Report:

My wife, her brother, and I climbed Glacier Peak over the Labor Day weekend. There have been several TRs on this route recently, but it's such a beautiful area that I thought I'd share some photos.

 

We left the North Fork Sauk Trial at dusk and hiked in headlamps for a couple of hours to make it to Mackinaw Shelter in the dark. Next morning we headed up and up...here we are after finally getting above timberline.

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We had a snack at White Pass and talked to a few guys heading to Stehekin via the PCT, then we caught the junction on the Foam Creek trail.

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After gaining the saddle above the trail, then dropping into the valley a bit, then gaining the next saddle we were rewarded with this view of a cloud-covered Glacier Peak.

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We had lunch in the basin...

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Then headed across the remnants of the White Chuck Glacier. A couple we met said it was better to cross the talus/mud area instead of climbing the shoulder past the White Chuck, but having gone up that way and down over the shoulder I have to disagree. Go up the talus early and get on snow.

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We still had a bunch of daylight so we went up and over Glacier Gap, dropped a couple hundred feet, gained the climber's trail toward Disappointment Peak and made a nice camp in a rock-wall bivy spot @7700'. Here's Derrick preparing to fly off into the sunset.

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The next morning we slept in, ate a good breakfast, drank lots of coffee, and headed up the easy snow of the Gerdine Glacier. There was a shooting gallery section of loose rock that was coming off Disappointment Peak. It's obvious, but I'd recommend staying further right than the boot pack highway goes.

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Here is my beautiful wife. It's her birthday today.

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There was a very short crevassed section where the Gerdine/Cool Glaciers meet, and one other crevasse crack that looked suspicious lower down on the Gerdine Glacier, but other than that it's smooth sailing. We gained the pumice ridge @9600' and followed the climber's trail to the summit, where we spent an hour watching the clouds come and go. Here the clouds come...

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And here the clouds go. A party with two dogs joined us on the summit.

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We scrambled back down the trail as a big party came up. Here Derrick catches some air on the pumice ridge near the top of the Cool Glacier.

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Here's the little crevassed section on the way down

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And the Mer de Glace that surrounds the Kololo Peaks

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Back at our 7700' camp

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Name the peaks:

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Back at Glacier Gap

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At the 6600' saddle, nearing the end of a long day

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Ptarmigan

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Mt Rainier above White Pass just after sunrise

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And again... Mt Rainier for breakfast

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One last look at Chossy Peak before heading back to White Pass

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Hiking back down the Foam Creek trail under White Mountain and a setting moon

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And one last look at Sloan Peak before dropping 3000' into the valley

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Approach Notes:

Follow the herd

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