[TR] Glacier Peak - 7/25/2014

[rachel the goat]

Trip: Glacier Peak - Disappointment Cleaver/ Cool Glacier

 

Date: 7/25/2014

 

Trip Report:

RT stats: 2 day trip, ~35 miles; over 10,000ft elevation gain, total hiking time 18.5 hrs

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Thursday night we tried to get to sleep early so that we could take off early for another weekend adventure in the cascades. This time, Glacier Peak was our objective. I was very excited because Glacier Peak was the one remaining volcano in Washington that I hadn’t yet climbed. This was also true for Nathanael, but he had a harder time getting excited; instead, he was focused on the route, conditions, how heavy his pack was, did we have everything that we need, are we sure we’re ready? We really do make a good team—I’m a bit too energetic and optimistic, while he is super cautious and attune to details. We even out to have the drive and the know-how when it comes to outdoor adventures.

 

We left Seattle around 6am, headed out to the Mountain Loop Hwy, up FR 49, and made it to the North Fork Sauk River trailhead by 8:30am (elev. ~2200ft). The first 5 miles to the Mackinaw Shelter were a breeze—lots of tall trees, overgrown underbrush, and little ups and downs that were definitely noticeable with our 40lb packs. At about 6 miles, the trail started to switchback up the valley. After about 2500ft elevation gain and exactly 26 switchbacks, we found ourselves traversing a beautiful alpine meadow, full of wildflowers and marmots.

 

At 8.4 miles from the trailhead, we reached the junction with the PCT (ele. ~6000ft). We almost went the wrong way here! We started walking along the PCT instead of traversing White Chuck Pass. We quickly realized our mistake (thanks to a Mountaineer who pointed us in the right direction!) and turned around. When you DO hit the junction, be sure to take a sharp climbers’ left.

 

We weren’t entirely sure how to do the next part; we just knew that we had to get over the ridge to our left and drop down to the basin on the other side. At the suggestion of some fellow climbers, we ended up doing the Steep Traverse, which basically takes the path from White Pass all the way until it ends, then cuts up towards the ridge. It’s not called the Steep Traverse for nothing—we had to climb down a steep gully, traverse under a ridge, and then back up another steep gully, only to find that we had one more similar basin to get through before reaching our base camp destination at White Chuck Glacier Basin. Here you will see your first views of Glacier.

 

We later found out that it would have been a lot easier to climb over the ridge up a cull after White Mountain that would eliminate so much up and down. Our 40lb packs made the going slow, but we managed to reach the intended basin around 6pm (~8.5 hrs from trailhead). We were originally thinking it would be nice to camp up higher at Glacier Gap, but we were ready to call it day after ~8hrs of hiking 13 miles, and ~5500ft of elev gain.

 

We set up camp above the two glacier fed tarns on a rocky perch that overlooked the entire basin. It was a wonderful campsite—free of snow, sandy ground, and glacier melt off right next to us—and we couldn’t have asked for a better view. We naturally started our base camp routine, setting up the tent, unpacking our gear, and preparing our much-deserved feast (Mountain House pad Thai and some fancy $0.49 cheesy noodles).

 

After dinner, we prepared our packs for the next morning with all our necessary belongings and examined our route. We weren’t confident as to where the route went from here, but we knew the general direction and figured it would make sense once we made it around the initial ridge seen from our campsite. At 8:30pm before the sunset we crawled into our tent, hoping to get some shut-eye before having to wake up for our alpine start.

 

3:00am came too early! We poked our heads out and scanned the basin below for signs of other climbers waking up. We saw headlamps, but no movement yet. We decided to wait for a bit for other climbers to get going so that we could follow their tracks. At about 3:45am, two climbers that we ran into the day before walked up to our campsite; ends up they were waiting for us to start moving so that they could follow us! We decided to all take off together and just find the route as we go. With our packs on our backs and our crampons on our feet, we were off at 4am. To get up to Glacier Gap, we traversed around the ridge, crossing snow, then rocks, then going up a snow gully until reaching the flat basin. We crossed the basin, took off our crampons, and then went up the rocks to reach Glacier Gap. From Glacier Gap, we had two options: gain the ridge on the right, staying on the rocks, or stay to the left and go up the snow. Since we still had out crampons off, we decided to gain the ridge. We quickly found out that this was not the most efficient way, as we just had to drop back down about 200 feet to get back on the now obvious route.

 

From here, it was easy to see the route. We walked along the glacial moraine ridge, following the open path up the ridge it got too steep, right at the base of Disappointment Peak. Here we dropped onto the snow and roped up with our glacier gear to cross the Gerdine Glacier, heading East below and around Disappointment Peak. The point where the Gerdine Glacier intersects the Cool Glacier had several open crevasses, but luckily still had solid snow bridges for us to safely cross. From here, it was a straight shot up to the saddle between Disappointment Peak and Glacier Peak. There were a few other open crevasses, but were very obvious and easy to go around. Once we reached the saddle, there was only one super steep snow gully between the summit and us (roughly 300 ft to the top). We stayed roped up here, but probably could have left our ropes at the top of Cool Glacier. This last part was really steep--roughly a 45 degree slope. At least it was still early enough in the day that the snow was perfect for gripping with our crampons and we felt secure as we climbed straight up to the top (at this point I was more concerned about the down climb…). We got to the top right around 8:30am, snapped some pictures, and then started to make our way back down the steep slope—it wasn’t as bad as I thought. We made good time as we came back down, following the same route that we came up. The snow had softened up significantly since the way up, making it easy to plunge step all the way down.

 

We reached our campsite a little after noon (~8hrs hiking 10 miles). I am not sure how or why, but somehow I had more energy at this point than I did the day before—maybe it was because I was running on a high from a successful summit! We packed up camp and had the intention of at least hiking back to White Pass to see how we felt; if were tired we would call it a day, if we felt good we would continue back to the trailhead. We set off at 1pm, slowly lugging our heavy packs back to White Pass. We made it to the pass by 3:30pm and decided to take a nice long break, eat some food, drink lots of water, and see how we were feeling. We were definitely tired, and within reason too—we’d not only been up since 3am but had already hiked ~12miles… oh, and climbed to the top of Glacier Peak! So, why not just push another 8.2 miles of mostly downhill and flat ground? No big deal, right? A hot shower and a real bed were too enticing. We descended slowly back down the 26 switch backs, our bodies hating us every step of the way. We reach Mackinaw shelter and somehow the trailhead still seemed so far away, even though it was only about 5 miles away. The last two miles just about did us in. Every corner we turned in hope that we would see the climber’s registration box. After what seemed like an eternity, we reached the car at 8:30pm.

 

 

Gear Notes:

Standard glacier gear

 

Approach Notes:

Suggestions:

1. Take three days total, not two (doing it in two is doable but a little insane).

2. Don't take the steep traverse. Instead, cross the ridge about a mile after White Pass.

3. See GPS track: http://www.movescount.com/moves/move36804821

4. See Facebook pictures: https://www.facebook.com/nmokry/media_set?set=a.10104453246175829.1073741841.6845190&type=1

Edited August 3, 2014 by rachel the goat

[Woodcutter]

That's a really very good photo.