Sunshine Route TR following the most recent warm-up for those wishing to use this as an ascent (or descent) route anytime soon.
Car shuttle up and over. Approach via Tilly Jane on 06/08/24. Road up to Cloud Cap is still closed as of this past weekend although it appears to be entirely melted out- bummer. Trail is snow-free up to the TJ A-frame after which patches of snow are lingering especially along the ski trail. Fairly consistent snow coverage beyond ~6600' towards the Cooper Spur shelter, which is still completely filled in with a huge block of snow. Upon reaching the stone shelter we went west towards the cairn on the Eliot east moraine, and followed a well-worn path down the moraine and onto the lowest reaches of the Eliot Glacier. We roped up at this point (likely unnecessary this low down but to each their own) and began a rising traverse to climber's right, aiming for a snow ramp directly right of the Eliot icefall seracs, at around 8400'. Some small crevasses were encountered past 7800' with more likely to open up as the warm-up continues. Upon gaining the snow ramp and descending a tiny bit we were greeted to a sweet bivy spot (at exactly 8400') with a panoramic view of the Eliot icefall, north face, and WA volcanoes. This put as at the base of Snow Dome for an easy ascent the following morning, however we would later find out that there is also ample flat ground for camping below Anderson rock at 9400'. Regardless, this lower bivy spot was FANTASTIC and I'd highly reccommend it. From this spot the entirety of the upper Sunshine Route is visible. We dug out a nice 9x12 pit for a tarp bivy and after doing all the usual camping stuffs went to sleep at 9pm to the sweet sound of rockfall off the Eliot headwall, owing to the warm temps.
Woke up at 2:30am and were packed up and on route around 3:30am. It was quickly clear that there was no overnight freeze, atleast down low on the Snow Dome. We postholed our way up snow dome and reached the base of Anderson rock around 4:30am. After assessing the first major 'schrund situation, we made the choice to traverse slightly right of the rock where the bersgchrund was bridged over nicely; the bergschrund is open now along the base of Anderson rock so going directly up it doesn't seem to be viable any longer. Due to the postholing conditions I made sure to give the visible edge of the crack a very wide berth and even this was slightly disconcerting. As the warm-up process continues one will likely be forced further right. Above this bergschrund was several hundred feet of steep-ish (~45-50) and exposed snow climbing however we did not feel the need to protect this (or anything else on the route for that matter) as every kick-step would sink in knee deep. The view looking down to the Coe icefall was fabulous however here I dropped my liner gloves which tumbled down into the abyss 🙃.
Eventually the slope eases to flatter ground at the base of Horseshoe rock. Thankfully, the 'schrund here was still bridged very nicely at the base of the rock allowing for a very direct climb up and along the immediate climber's left of the rock, just right of the Eliot cirque seracs here. One could likely also still climb up the rock itself, however there is an amount of exposed choss now to negotiate. The moderate slopes along the left of Horseshoe rock were some of the most heinous snow on the route with the occasional thigh-deep sinking and we were happy to finally top out on Queen's chair, but not before postholing into one last insidious crevasse at the very top of the route- spooky!
Conditions above Queen's chair and along the summit ridge were the typical rime feather BS, and we quickly tagged the summit a bit past 7am and descended the Old Chute back to Timberline. Old chute was a slush fest due to the lack of overnight freeze and there was a concerning amount of debris, especially below the West Crater Rim.
Lower Eliot approach:
Eliot icefall:
Camp at base of snow dome:
View of Eliot seracs from 8400' camp:
Steep snow (or slush?) climber's right of Anderson rock, above the bergshrund:
Climbing left of Horseshoe rock:
Climbing above Horseshoe rock just below Queen's chair:
Yikes
Upper Sunshine Route as of 06/09/24:
