[TR] Glacier Peak - Disappointment Peak Cleaver 8/3/2015

[montynet]

Trip: Glacier Peak - Disappointment Peak Cleaver

 

Date: 8/3/2015

 

Trip Report:

Party of 3 we attempted a 2 day Glacier Peak summit. We started our day on Saturday 8/1 near the Seattle area at 5 am meetup time. We reached the trail head around 7:50 AM after an unfortunate detour into an obscured forest road mistakenly thought to be FR49 (tip FR49 is well marked, do not blindly follow Google ) We geared up and started our hike at 8 am. The first 5.5 miles to the Mackinaw shelter (wooded structure) is relatively flat about 900 ft or so of gain. Then make sure you have at least 1.5 liters of water for the next 2500 ft of gain as it is exposed and you won't find many water sources until you're near the PCT intersection near White Pass, the good thing is that berries are in season. At White Pass views are expansive and amazing. We followed the Foam Creek trail with no issues and at the end of it we made a small hike up of to a pass that had us dropped about 200 ft and then do another traverse. All bootpaths can be clearly seen. We got our first glimpses of Glacier Peak when we hiked up to the third pass in the approach hike. Then we descended down about 400 ft to a beautiful basin with some lakes/tarns and then ascended those 400 ft again to another higher basin. We decided to camp around 6650 ft near a lake before crossing the receding White Chuck Glacier (tip, stay away from the ablation zone as there seems to be quick sand of some sort). The next day 8/2, we woke up at 2:30 AM, gear up and started our climb at ~3:00 AM. We did not touched snow until around 7500ft. We put on crampons and started our ascend. Below, Disappointment Peak there's an obvious rock fall hazard so probably best to stay away as much as possible, wear helmet. The route is well traveled and crevasses are open for the most part so you can navigate around without much issues. We saw one solo climber that passed us around 7500ft and did not see him until 9370 ft when he was already coming back...yeah. The Cool Glacier around 9100 ft has some crevasses along the route so probably best to stay roped up until 9370 which is the start of a clear bootpath that takes you the summit. There is a summit a register. I summitted at 9:10 AM, and reached base camp at 12:50 PM. Then I took a break until 4:00 PM which included a swim and headed back to the TH. We all reached the trail head before 11:50 PM on 8/2. My GPS stats were 38 miles and 11719 ft of cumulative gain in two days...not too shabby

 

If you're interested in a gpx file, contact Adventure Explorers via facebook

 

 

Adventure Explorers was here

 

At White Pass

 

At third pass, don't know the name, maybe Glacier Gap

 

 

Gear Notes:

Standard glacier travel equipment

 

Approach Notes:

Approach Forest Road 49 from Darrington, even though it is longer of unpaved road, the road has a lot less pot holes.