Icicle Ridge via Fourth of July Creek — Saturday, May. 27, 2017

I hiked here this previous weekend, in order to get away from some of the more crowded hikes further down Icicle Creek.  If you're up for it, I'd reccomend this hike.  Despite it being Memorial Day weekend, I only saw 2 parties on the way up, one when of which I shared the summit with for a while.  If you're up for it, I'd recommend this hike, the views you get are worth it, and you don't get these kinds of panoramas without scrambling most of the time.  

This is a tough hike, and you want to start early; both because it is long and because it tends to start getting warm on this side of the pass in June. Almost the entire hike is exposed too, so bring hat/sunscreen/sunglasses and plenty of water.  I first hiked this last year and decided I would have to come back, and here I was about a year later.

The trail is in good shape, most of the blow downs from last year being cleared.  Some minor routefinding was required where the trail petered out into heather in a couple of places, but the route was well flagged.  As of Saturday, there was still enough snow to posthole in spots right below the summit, but I wouldn't expect it to last much longer, as it is on a southern exposure.  As I'm writing this report, it is Tuesday (sorry), so that snow could be gone.  Bring trekking poles.

The summit block has beautiful views, and you can still see some remnants of the old lookout (broken boards and such), in a crevasse next to the summit.  Make sure to climb up onto the square ish mass of rock on top, if you are up to it, as there are 360 degree views, and right now you can see many different ecosystems.

The descent sucks.  It is long and downhill the whole way, and my legs are always shot at the end of this descent.  Take your time here, too.  I spent about 30 minutes on the summit (much longer than usual), and the RT time was about 6 hours for me on this particular day.  about 2 of these were down.