Weather cleared up for a successful summit on May 19!
Left the trailhead at 5am on the dot. Reached the summit around 11am. Spent an hour to an hour and a half up top. Back to the car at 4pm. Crampons and ice axe were necessary on this day. Poles also helpful.
Starting at 5am, we did not need headlamps except to read the first trail sign. As other reports have mentioned, patchy snow starts about 1 mile in, with complete snow coverage close to 2mi in. Definitely make sure to cross Swift Creek at Chocolate Falls! We saw some people climbing the ridge east of the creek, and it looked rough. We were able to follow the posts until they ended, then stayed on the rocky ridge as long as we could, before crossing the snow field to monitor ridge. This snow field was when we put on crampons. The last push up to Monitor Ridge was the steepest part. We did not head to the true summit.
Weather: In and out of the clouds, with wind when you got higher. Experienced some white out conditions, but also blue skies. Snow when we reached the summit, but it cleared up offering plenty of views of the rest of the crater rim. Pretty warm most of the way; I was able to go up in just a long sleeve sun shirt, and then pulled out the jacket up top due to wind picking up. Bring plenty of water especially if the sun comes out!
Snow: Snow at the base was a bit slippery, but we didn’t pull out crampons until 4800.’ Snow coming up was windswept and icy. Really relied on crampons as it was too hard to kick steps for portions. The portion up to monitor ridge was steep and windswept, but well worth it! Snow coming down up top was still a little hard/icy for glissading, but it got much better about 1000ft down. Overall we were able to glissade to the no climbing without permits sign. On the way down we did traverse a bit of monitor ridge and then cut east rather than go the route we came in an effort to avoid descending the steep, icy portion. Plenty of others did take the original routes glissade chutes, so make your own decision.
Navigation: As always, worth having a paper map, compass, or gps just in case. When the clouds rolled in it made it hard to see landmarks around you, or pick out other people on the trail.
Trailhead -> Chocolate Falls = 1hr. Chocolate Falls -> Summit = 5hrs. Summit -> Trailhead = 4 hours.
Comments