Lake Serene, Mount Index — Monday, Jan. 18, 2021

Used the Lake Serene trail to access the hourglass gulley route on Mount Index this past Monday. I started at about 4:30 in the morning and was surprised to still run into a couple of hikers halfway to the lake. The lake serene trail itself was in great condition until the last 1/4 mile. At that point, it turned into compact snow/ice and microspikes are highly recommended.

Working my way around lake serene was easy going with the very compact snow. I did put on snowshoes about halfway around once I started sinking. Finally, on the ridgeline, the day got much tougher. The rock step that most people rappel was half-covered in snow and the exposed rock was covered in thin ice. I managed to make the step but the exposure here will definitely give most people some pause. The snow above was a nice 50 degrees or so making the climb to the top of the ridge pretty tough.

Hourglass gulley was in great shape. The only thing that really got to me was the ice chunks breaking off and careening down the slope. Other than that it was a fairly standard winter route climb for the cascades. Snow, blue ice, and some interesting traversing for the day.

The final summit push was the easiest part of the day and made for an excellent January outing. The view on this clear of a day was breathtaking!

The way out was the hardest part. Down climbing some of the Hourglass gulley and making the final rappel made this whole experience feel like a 10,000-foot mountain, not the 6,000 that it is.

More Information on this Trip Report

• https://www.hike2hike.com/mount-index-hourglass-gulley-climb.html