Beautiful day for a trail ramble (run/scramble) in the GPW!

Road is long and potholed, and has one washout section that would be tough without high clearance. Trailhead is spacious and was fairly quiet on a shoulder-season Friday. Trail was in great shape, except for a few tricky blowdowns on the steep section between Pilot Ridge and the river. Lots of solitude and lots of blueberries out there!

One notable callout - there's almost no water on the PCT or Pilot Ridge trail - there are a few trickles right before White Pass, but other than that, you're dry all the way to Blue Lake.

Completed this loop as a 3 day/2 night trip. We decided to do the loop counterclockwise to save our knees on the descent. Day 1 up pilot ridge and over to Blue Lake was brutal - a note that once you reach the ridgeline after the initial steep ascent up pilot ridge, there are no water sources between that point and Blue Lake. Passed a black bear on the ridge, it immediately ran off when it heard/saw us approach. I would have liked to do a side trip to Johnson Mountain but we were low on water and also just wiped from the ascent. Blue Lake was gorgeous! Lovely place to cool off after the long hike and plenty of camping spots. 

Day 2 started with the ascent up the steep Blue Lake high route. I was incredibly happy that we were going up that part of the trail instead of descending, which we would have done had we done the loop clockwise. There were a few areas where a poorly placed foot could lead to a nasty slide down a scree field. The views on the high route are definitely worth it though. The trail between Blue Lake and White Pass was also very dry - there are a few trickles crossing over the path where you can fill up if needed but water sources are limited and this stretch is very exposed. We stopped at the Indian Pass intersection for a quick lunch. Hike up to White Pass was beautiful and I appreciated that the exposure was broken up by a few stretches of wooded areas on this hot day. Camped at White Pass for the night - the stream is really just a trickle at this point but we were able to get water for filtering. 

Day 3, we descended back to the trailhead from White Pass. Many marmots, lots of ripe blueberries up on the ridge! I was again very grateful that we were able to descend down the more gradual North Fork Sauk trail going in this direction rather than pilot ridge. Beautiful trek back - the forests were cool and the path was well maintained. 

Excellent hike overall, if you're like me and have not-so-great knees I strongly recommend completing CCW. 

Overview

I backpacked the White Pass/Pilot Ridge loop over Labor Day weekend in a group of four, two of us summited Glacier Peak along the way. This will be a bit of a long trip report to cover all the ground we covered!

• Friday: Depart Seattle, Arrive White Pass
• Saturday: Glacier summit, stay at White Pass again
• Sunday: White Pass to Upper Blue Lake
• Monday: Upper Blue Lake to trailhead via Pilot Ridge

Road Conditions

The road in off the Mountain Loop Highway is terrible! Much worse than trip reports made it out to be. We drove in a large truck and although there were several sedans in the lot, they must have been bottoming out constantly the last 5 miles or so. Huge ruts in the road, all passable but jarring.

Trailhead to White Pass

We left the trailhead around 11am and made it to White Pass at about 6pm. It's a slog uphill the last few miles. White Pass definitely fills up on the weekends and we were glad to have arrived Friday night. By Saturday, people were tenting on top of one another, basically.

The campsite is nearly dry - if you follow the creek running through the meadow downhill about 200 yards, there is a thin stream that is clean and usable. But it's slow and required some work to get enough water for a party of four.

Glacier Peak

The two of us summiting Glacier left Friday night to get down the trail. The goal was high camp near Glacier Gap but that was going to be too far in the shortening daylight hours. We instead camped about 2 hours down the trail in a basin (near the lower camp). From the low camp:

• 3:30am - Left camp
• 4:30am - High Camp (below Glacier Gap)
• 5:00am - Glacier Gap
• 7:15am - Left ridge, put crampons on
• 8:30am - Off snow, on summit ridge
• 9:15am - On summit
• 9:45am - Back to snow
• 11:00am - Off snow
• 3:30pm - At White Pass

Worth mentioning that from the ridge to the summit, we were hauling, moving quickly to make a return time to White Pass that we had agreed upon with our partners. This timing was ambitious and we took way longer on the descent that we figured.

The crevasses are definitely open, but they're also easily passable with gear. We booted straight up past them, but on return we took the MUCH easier route through the field as some guides are charted a nice bootpack through.

Other considerations - it's hot out there! And dry, from a few trickles at the bottom of Glacier Gap to the summit there's no water and it bakes on that snow field.

White Pass to Upper blue lake

Slog to Upper Blue Lake, particularly that final ridge above the lake. The overall gain for the day doesn't seem intense but we all were dragging in the heat.

Shortly after gaining the ridge and dropping down, we encountered a party in distress. A woman was sitting on the trail, clutching her leg. We stopped and asked if they were okay, her partner reported that they were not okay, they needed help, and the woman in pain on the trail had badly sprained her ankle coming downhill. Luckily a third person in their group had taken the injured person's pack downhill to the lake.

My partner is a nurse and we moved to stabilize the ankle. Because the trail was so steep, we lent her a pair of gloves to help protect her hands as she crab-walked down. We hustled off the ridge and dropped packs. Returning, three of us helped carry her down to the lake where a PT helped assess and wrap the ankle. The PT (invaluable! Thank you so much!) thought the ankle was broken and they called for help.

Within the hour, a helicopter approached the lake, circling once before lowering a person on a line. They then lifted her and her bag to safety and zoomed out of there. There were maybe...twenty people at the lake, all gawking and in awe of the rapid response. Really amazing to witness.

This was the first time in many years of backpacking I've experienced something like this and it was intense! It was really nice to see the help other people offered, and a tad disheartening to reflect on how many people, including a large group just ahead of us, had walked past a group clearly in distress.

Also important to note that in Washington State, RESCUES ARE FREE! This is an incredible state with incredible search and rescue staff. Wow.

Upper blue lake to Trailhead

Uneventful, long, downhill slog home.

Me and two friends and a pup drove up from Portland to hike the White Pass Pilot Ridge Loop. Got a reasonably early start on Wednesday. 
Day 1 was to White pass along the North Sauk and then up, a little brooding in the valley but beautiful up out in the open and the beginning of the most epic berry fields I’ve ever encountered. Fog rolled into White Pass that evening and kept us socked in, depriving hopes of a sunset. Bugs were out around dinner time at camp, I was thankful to have done a permethrin treatment of my gear. Stream at White Pass should be good for at least two weeks. Mentioned to a group of 3 the sign saying not to camp on the ridge and was ignored 🙃.

Day 2 was a day trip to Foam Creek Basin and Glacier peak Meadows. Had some good views on the Foam Creek side but Glacier Peak Meadows offered no more than a 1/4 mile visibility. Still fun to hike and explore the low glacial zone. Some rain and some big wind gusts back at White Pass that evening.

Day 3, after consulting weather on my friends InReach, we decided to make a big push and complete the loop. Early PCT miles were very fast. Blue lake high trail was toughhhhh loaded. Didn’t see anyone at Blue Lake and we were still living in the cloud. Enjoyed Pilot Ridge but again, no views, and we were hammered on the long descent. Ended up being a roughly 21 mile day with 3.5k up and 7k down. Would love to return in a clearer weather window, but thankful for what we got.

Hiked the Pilot Ridge Loop over three days, beginning at the North Fork Sauk trailhead. The road is quite rough with many big potholes and a small rocky section so a car with some clearance is best. No issue in a Forester, just slow going.

Trail is in great shape and very smooth until the climb up to White Pass. Some small rocky areas but overall great. Several small streams flowing along the way and ripe berries everywhere. No water on trail from the PCT junction to Red Pass. Very cloudy and damp this day at the pass with times of sun in the evening.

The next day continued down the PCT above the clouds in the higher portions and down into deep fog through Indian Pass, then back out near Kodak Peak. There is water in places through this section to Dishpan Gap but very small slow flowing streams. Continued over the high trail to Blue Lake which was fully socked in except for a few hours in the evening. Some mosquitoes but nothing bad.

Made the side trip to Johnson Mountain which was unfortunately fully enveloped in clouds. Trail was in good shape though. Then a long cloudy walk out Pilot Ridge. Rougher trail than the PCT but in good shape. No water between Blue Lake and a small source as the trail drops down into the Sauk river valley again at 4700 ft. Great log to cross the river.