I was fortunate to do a number of climbs this Summer up Monitor Ridge and when I would get to the point where you can see the Worm flow route I kept saying to myself you need to try that when there is no snow. I’m sure hikers do the worm route when there is no snow on the route I just haven’t seen any reports so I decided to try this on last Thursday. Snagged a last minute permit Wednesday so I did it all legal like.
I was the only one parked in the lower parking lot at the Sno-Park. One other vehicle was there when I got back.
If solitude is what you want on a hike to the summit this is the way. Didn’t see a person until I merged with the Monitor ridge route. Chocolate Falls was dry on the way up but on the way down water or should I say the chocolate milk was flowing pretty decent. So from there you just basically follow the Winter route ridge line up to Monitor Ridge. I tried at first to hike on the East side of the ridge because it was void of rocks but that started getting too close for comfort for me to the deep gulley that feeds Chocolate Falls so I ended having to cut back on the ridge proper anyway… If I were to do this again I would just follow the top of the ridge. There are no large boulder fields like Monitor but there are large rocks so it is also slow going. There is a trace of a trail through them and I did see some footprints so this route does see some action in the summer.
As you get closer to Swift Glacier you can hear the water that feeds Chocolate Falls and you get a good look at the crevasse’s which seem deeper being this close.
As you get closer to Monitor ridge you can see and hear the hikers. Finally, you top out at around 800’ below the summit. Unfortunately, you still need to do the scree part up to the rim. No way around that.
Decided not to go to the true summit this time as that would have taken another hour so I ate lunch at the rim. On the way back down I decided to go down the Monitor Ridge route and then take a left on the Loowit trail and go back to Sno-Park that way to get a few more miles in. Also I just didn’t feel like going back down all those rocks.
All in all, this is a neat hike. Without snow it is definitely a different look if your used to doing this route in the Winter or Spring. The ridges seem higher and the gulley’s seem deeper without snow blanketing them.
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