[TR] Curtis Gilbert- Unnamed Galcier on North flank of Gilbert 7/14/2006

[Kaskadekid]

Climb: Curtis Gilbert-Unnamed Galcier on North flank of Gilbert

 

Date of Climb: 7/14/2006

 

Trip Report:

After a stellar snow year I was pretty excited about climbing Curtis Gilbert again! Last year my wife and I had run into some very nasty scrambling on the klickton divide route (which I would not recommend unless you like depending on some of the most rotten rock in the cascades and trust the 40+ mountain goats that hang out in that area to not knock loose a rock on your head)... Anyhow, I had read about an alternate route around the northeast side that was more alpine in nature and thought this might be a great route with the increased snow cover.

 

My wife, 2 friends, and I decided saturday afternoon that a sunday summit would be great so we piled into our alpinemobile (AKA junker AWD) and headed south. We took the "shortcut" through eatonville, elbe to morton but got stuck behind Rainier Tourists and a large procession of Harleys. When we finally reached HWY 12 we were a little behind schedule. We took FSR 21 to the snowgrass flat trailhead piled out and hit the trail at about 5:30pm.

 

We hiked the snowgrass flat trail (trail 96) for about 4mi until the cut off trail (trail 97) which we stayed on for about 1mi until it connected with the PCT. We hit broken snow just about the intersection of trail 97. We then continued south on the PCT until cispus basin where we set up camp on a ledge overlooking the valley. The basin has excellent water sources all summer so water for drinking and cooking was easily available.

 

It was about 8pm by the time we started to set up camp and the sun had gone down behind a ridge but was reflecting brightly off the Big/little horn and Goat Citadel and to the south Mt Adams was lit up. As we ate supper we saw a heard of 12 elk, 25-30 goats, and what we thought was a bear... (with binocs it turned out to be a bare rock). The scenery of the Goat Rocks is one of the most under-recognized in washington and anyone who has not been there is truly missing out!

 

Since we all had evening commitments back in Tacoma on sunday we wanted to climb early and get back to the car by noon. Thus, we started climbing at 5am. From cispus basin we ascended a snowfield north/northeast to a pass just east of peak 7478 but north of Big/little Horn group. We then droped over the ridge onto an apparently unnamed glacier just east of the Big/little Horn group. The glacier flows off the north flank of Gilbert peak and there is a small 100-200ft wide glacial slip that extends all the way to the upper summit ridge. This is the most direct route to the summit from the north and with this year's phenominal snow fall only 3 small crevasses were open. Last year this route was almost impassable due to a moat that developed. Once we achieved the summit ridge it was an easy 1/2 walk to the summit formation and 100ft of easy scrambling to reach the summit. We summited about 7:30am took some pics and headed down. The descent was uneventful and we packed up and made it back to the car by 12:30.

 

All in all a good trip at a good time of year with great snow coverage!

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

Crampons, Ice Axe, treking poles, Rando rope, harness, usual hike/eat/sleep items.

 

Approach Notes:

See TR

[Farrgo]

Nice TR, I've heard that's a good outing. Did you get any pics?

[Kaskadekid]

It was a great little trip and I did get some great pics but since it was my first time posting I am not sure how to upload them. Any tips?