Vesper Peak — Thursday, Jun. 13, 2024

Arrived at the TH at 6:50 and there were no cars. The road is in pretty good shape and you could make it there in most cars. Don’t let previous reports scare you away, the river crossings are not that bad. The first two are little more than an inconvenience. For the third crossing, I opted to walk across on the small two logs stacked on top of each other. Take your time and if the logs seem too sketchy, walk up the river a bit and you’ll pretty quickly find something more suitable. At around 3500 feet, things will start to open up and you’ll begin seeing snow. Instead of following the trail up to climbers right, just keep going straight into the snow. You might need to bushwhack a tiny bit but it’s worth it. Get your crampons, axe, and helmet out, and just walk straight until you see the couloir that takes you up on the right. There are tons of tracks so even if you’re not confident in your route finding, you’re 100% okay. Before the pass, things can get moderately steep but there’s no real danger here. At the pass, there’s a bit of dirt but I decided to just keep my gear on. There’s a small section that alternates between rock and snow so I just went down to the left, stayed in the snow, and skipped the rock entirely. The snow here is solid and I wouldn’t want to cross the rock with crampons so I think going low is a better choice. At 4900 feet, next to the lake, it’s just a straight shot along the ridge up to the peak. The views here are spectacular, some of the best I’ve ever seen. It was a beautiful day and I could see everything. I finished the day in a total of 6 hours and 6 miles with 4k elevation. Despite the short mileage, it took much much longer than I anticipated due to snow and me just being tired. I saw nobody the entire day which was a pleasant surprise. If you’re confident in the snow, there’s nothing to worry about and if you’re not, this is a great place to gain some experience.