Steamboat Prow, Mount Ruth, Glacier Basin & Emmons Moraine — Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025

Steamboat Prow has always intrigued me. It’s a prominent feature strikingly visible from many locations. Super aptly-named as well. It’s been on my list for a awhile and today was the perfect day to check it out.

Weather was sublime. Not too hot, not too cold, light warm breeze. Could not have been any better.

My plan was to do somewhat of a lollipop loop up Glacier Basin Trail, then take the climber’s trail from GB Camp to Ruth and the Prow. Returning via the Emmons Moraine ‘trail’ which I never really found until the end. When they say it’s “not maintained” they mean it. More on that later.

Started up the Glacier Basin trail at 8:30am. GB trail was immaculate, and a nice, smooth, mellow warmup. Soon I was at GB Camp where wide open views begin, and remain for the duration of the trip. The scenery is stunning and just gets better every step of the way.

From GBC I took the climber’s trail spur south and easily hopped across the Inter Fork. The trail was in great shape and easy to follow. It’s steep and sandy, and gravelly in spots, but the recent rains really improved the tread. Firm and grippy as opposed to loose and dusty.

After about a mile of steep climbing the trail mellows out cresting the moonscape ridge of the Emmons moraine where Little Tahoma first appears in whole, all at once. It’s quite a shock and resembles nothing “little”. The whole area up here just seems huge, vast, and endless. The Emmons Glacier is gigantic, its crevasses massive, and this late in the season looks like a stormy sea of ice stuck in time.

It was here that the glacier soundtrack kicked in and was on full repeat for the rest of my duration above 6800’. The white noise of rushing water peppered with the echoing sounds of rockfall and cracking ice combined with the visuals was full sensory overload.

Trekking up to Ruth starts mellow and steepens into a chossy, rocky landscape. I lost the ‘trail’ a few times here as it diverts north away from the ridge a bit. Any way up would probably ‘work' but it’s a bit of a game of choose your own adventure while trying to find a path of least resistance. The rock was fairly loose in this area as well which made travel tedious, but I would find an easier path on the descent.

Finally topped out on Ruth, and views were jaw-dropping -especially looking up the tantalizing route to the Prow. Knowing that the views would only improve from here, I didn’t linger long. Grabbed a quick snack and some water and got moving.

There is a pretty minor cliff feature to descend along the way. From other reports I’d read, I thought it was going to be a bigger deal. I found it to be pretty short and routine class 3. Maybe 20 feet, good holds, not much exposure.

From the mini-cliff, the trail continued over snow-free, arid, gravelly path. The geology in this area is so cool. It’s a myriad of colors (red, pink, yellow, orange), and full of volcanic artifacts. The Inter Glacier (what’s left of it) was pretty bare and sad-looking. I could see how it would make for an epic glissade in the right conditions.

My pace slowed as I continued up, feeling the altitude a bit, and just in awe of the scenery & solitude. Nobody at Camp Curtis, or Camp Schurman that I saw. Not surprising this time of year. Gaping crevasses dominate the icy landscape everywhere you look.

Finally topped out at 1pm, still amazed at how perfect the weather was. There were several craggy, cliffy spires I explored. And from here the Winthrop Glacier comes into full view for the first time, flanking the west side of the Prow. Combined with Emmons, it definitely gives you that “bow of a ship” feel, like a steamboat cleaving the ice into its 2 glaciers.

As I ate lunch, I heard a massive rockfall avalanche on the Curtis Ridge wall. It took me a moment to spot it, but was super impressive. With so much to see and savor, I stayed up top as long as I could. And after an hour and a half I headed down.

It was much easier and faster moving on the descent not feeling the altitude as much. And, after passing Ruth, I had no problem locking into the trail as it trended NE a bit.

Once I got back to the 6800’ spot on the ridge, my alltrails app clearly showed an "Emmons Moraine trail" continuing NE along the ridge which I regrettably took. The ridge walk was super straightforward, although not much of a “trail”, and crossed a few rocky high points.

At about 6600’ along the ridge, the way descends and is pretty steep in spots. It’s loose, gravelly, and I saw no sign of a trail. I’ll spare the details, other than to say I would definitely not recommend hiking in this area. The app showed I was “on trail” but there was no trail in sight. Additionally it was pretty brushy and littered with deadfall. Normally I’m pretty thorough with prep before a hike. This time I winged it on a section I knew nothing about and paid the price, ha.

By the time I reached the “Trail Unmaintained Past This Point” sign, the trail was great! :)) Soon after I crossed the Inter Fork bridge and wrapped up the last 20min on the Glacier Basin Trail finishing at 6:25pm.

Aside from the phantom trail shenanigans, it was an awesome day! 13.4miles, 5,610'gain