mthorman

Yes totally doable just be prepared for more snow being early season. My wife and I climbed it mid June with our dogs a few years ago and had a fantastic ski off the summit back to camp. We hit consistent snow at the top of the switchbacks before White Pass. I would recommend taking a backcountry/touring setup if going in June. Much easier travel especially in the heat of the day when the snow becomes sloppy. With all that said most the PNW is currently behind in snowpack so maybe June will be a little more snow free this year. Either way I would definitely try to see where the snow line is so you are prepared with the right equipment. CalTopo's Satellite imagery is one of the best for this. You have to have a paid membership to get the high resolution but it updates every 4-6 days and you can clearly see where the snow line is. Best of luck! Glacier Peak is a cool trip!

FYI TentPole Technologies in Vancouver WA is great at sourcing replacement sections for tent poles. I have used them several times in the past and they were super knowledgable!

Oh man super unfortunate but not unexpected. I hope they actually fix the roads this time instead of just "closing" them all and letting the forest take back over.

I still have an older Iphone 13 so I don't have that option. But I have had multiple climbing partners text on it in the backcountry from WA to UT. Sometimes it took a few minutes but it never failed. In the future I will probably do the same as you once I upgrade phones. I am curious if the Iphone satellite texting works well in Alaska. That would be a huge improvement for expedition climbing especially weather forecasting.

Great trip Jason! I guess there is a lot more alpine than I realized on Vancouver Island. Do the bugs go away late season?

I don't think I could ask for a better 1st trip into the Picket Range! One thing to add is that this late in the season we didn't have to cross any snow/ice on the approach, the traverse to the base of the route or on route. Here are a few more photos. Starting up pitch 1. The main corner system that we followed is up and left of the obvious large roof directly above this corner. Starting up pitch 3. The large detached looking block at top right was more secure than it looks. Starting up pitch 4 towards the roof. Avoid this by traversing right across the face at the roof. Coming up to the belay at the top of pitch 6. Our descent route down the south side. From the col between east and west Mac we followed the gully south along the dotted line then made 4 raps approximately where the 4 dots are to reach the lower angle terrain. Morning sunrise from the bivy.

Love the stoke, pictures and TR! I have often thought about doing some bike-hikes. Maybe someday I will bring that to a reality. Congrats on a huge accomplishment.

Very cool trip! Thanks for posting.

Just read your blog...wow what a great season!! You have been getting after it this spring. Thanks for the post.

There are plenty of trip reports out there about the Tahoma Glacier, so I won't elaborate too much on the route. Last year we had planned to climb this route but with a very terrible forecast during our dates we postponed it a year. This year we braved the rain on day 1 in hopes of the promised good weather for summit day. Thankfully it paid off. Leaving the trailhead Saturday morning in the rain. (Photo by my wife) Found fresh snow from the previous night that was now a sloppy mess.....still raining. (Photo by my wife) Rewarded with this view on Day 2. We moved from Camp 1 at 6,200 ft up the Puyallup Cleaver to high camp at 9,800ft at the base of Saint Andrews Rocks. Looking at the Puyallup Glacier. It was well filled in and easy walking up to high camp at 9,800ft. Looking down at the Tahoma Glacier from high camp. You have to drop down the ramp to reach the glacier proper. Sunset at Saint Andrews Rocks at 9,800ft. (Photo by my wife) Early morning crevasse navigation. (photo by my wife) Some more crevasse shenanigans in the broken up sections. More crevasse zigzagging. (photo by my wife) The team nearing the top of the route approaching 14,000ft. The summit with my wife and I. At 13,100 feet on the way down our 2nd person (out of 5) had a sliding fall into a crevasse. I have always said that if you keep your intervals tight you shouldn’t have to worry too much about crevasse falls. And over the last 15 years this has proved true in both the PNW and AK. With multiple small punch throughs over the years nobody has ever gone farther than their armpits. But this time was different. This is because if you punch through a snow bridge you will likely go up to your waist or backpack but then be tight and climb out on your own. I think this is true for typical crevasse falls….bad snow bridge, or winded over crevasse. These are times were you are surprised and fall right in. There is an entirely different type of crevasse fall. This is when you take a fall in steeper terrain and are unable to arrest that fall prior to the crevasse. I never really thought much about this because I feel really confident on crampons and look at those short locations as “do not fall” sections. But clearly with a less experienced group I need to take those sections a little more seriously. Our #2 guy on the rope was very tired on the way down which I am sure contributed to the fall. He fell in just such a place on a traverse above a crevasse on terrain I would call “no fall zones”. He fell off the upper lip and into a big open crevasse. The rope wasn’t super tight but there wasn’t an excessive amount of slack in the system. It was in difficult terrain where there were multiple obstacles stacked right after each other so team members were navigating different technical obstacles all at the same time (not ideal). Looking back I think I could have potentially avoided the incident by the use of running protection. I just felt so secure in those sections that I didn’t really think it necessary. But when taking newer people out it is better to take a couple minutes to add running protection than a hour to pull someone out of a crevasse. Lesson learned for sure, and I am just really glad he was ok. When the fall occurred, my wife who was leading the rope team had just finished all the technical obstacles and was on the lower lip of the crevasse. #2 was working across a traverse 8 feet above the lip of the crevasse and then had a 10 ft down climb to a narrow snow bridge. #3 had just finished a down climb and was just making a step across a thin snow bridge and onto the traverse. #4 was at the beginning of a down climb. #5 (myself) was anchoring the back on the slope above. When #2 fell he was unable to arrest in those 8 feet and so fell off the upper lip. He stopped about 30 feet below the lower lip and just above a sloping snow ledge. The rope never came tight to my wife (#1) because #2 fell towards her creating slack. #3 was pulled off her feet across the snowbridge onto the traverse. She was able to arrest. #4 was pulled off his feet and into the down climb. Myself in the back was able to arrest and hold the fall helped by #3 on the traverse. Thankfully #2 who fell in was uninjured. We were able to give him a little slack so he could get his weight on his feet onto the sloping ledge and then we started working on a plan. It took a bit of time to get things setup since the terrain was complicated where most of the team had arrested the fall. But in the end we were able to get everyone except for myself to my wife's position on the lower lip where there was a great spot for rescue. They were able to equalize 2 pickets (1 deadman and 1 end SLAM) and then used a 3:1 system with an ice ax at the lip to keep the rope up. Once the system was set 2 people were able to haul out the climber in less than 5 minutes. Having various different levels of experience on the team we spent a few minutes afterwards discussing and debriefing the incident. Here were a few lessons people found helpful. Place anchors further from the edge so there is more room to haul. When moving downhill keep walking down past the obstacle (body belay) vs. a hip or ice ax belay. This allows you to quickly run downhill should someone slide towards you creating slack. You need room to walk around at the anchors when performing a rescue. If in a safe spot think about just being out of the system. If not then use cord or the back end of a rope. Both the first 2 rescuers got pretty pinned into short tethers that prevented much movement initially. Have 1 person take lead on patient care and tell the person in the hole to put on warm clothes…even in best case scenarios it is going to be 15-20 minutes in the cold crevasse. If there is a ledge in the crevasse consider giving slack to get the person off the rope and onto their feet. Use the rope for backup should the snow give way again. Think through all the steps that need to get accomplished and try to figure out what can be done concurrently to speed up the process and gain efficiency. Here is the rescue in progress from the top lip of the crevasse at the beginning of the traverse. I ended up be "stuck" on the high side and only helped through directions. I felt the team plenty competent and taking the time to get me to them would just delay pulling out the fallen climber. One more shot as the fallen climber nears the lip. A shot looking up at the top lip of the crevasse and the traverse above. You can see the top of the upper down climb above the traverse on the left. The thin snowbridge is hidden behind the traverse on the left. The final down climb and narrow snow bridge are on the far right after the traverse. The whole incident took about an hour from the time of fall to having everyone out and gathered up at the lower lip. From there we continued down the glacier without further incident. Although people's nerves were a bit shot and any steep terrain encountered further down was negotiated with slow care. This resulted in a very long but safe day. Farther down the glacier at about 11,000ft. We hiked out the next day in beautiful sunshine and tired bodies. But got to see some goats in the process. (photo by my wife)

How much are you wanting for it?

Nice man, love the enthusiasm!! I always enjoy seeing the goats.

The Cassin was planned for a different year. We climbed both Ham & Eggs and Shaken Not Stirred on the same 2 week trip. So we got a bump from TAT mid trip between the Root Canal and the West Fork. But we did have the Southwest Ridge of Dan Beard in our options. I also remember a team climbing good terrain up the valley behind and west of Peak 11300. I am not sure of the exact route though.

Good write up Troy! Glad you came away from the fall with just a bruised ego.

I can't speak to the other routes but SW Ridge on Peak 11300 is very good. The climbing was never hard but it was in a great position. I seem to remember most of it was simul climbing terrain. We did it as a preparation for climbing the Cassin (which we never ended up doing). I would personally recommend it as just a great route up there. I have notes somewhere if you wanted more details but I think there is a fair bit online too. Two weeks in early/mid May is a great trip in there!!