Glacier Peak, North Fork Sauk River — Wednesday, Jul. 12, 2017

Trail Summary

• North Sauk River Trailhead to Mackinaw Shelter. Flat trail but has annoying downed trees. Saw a forest work party head up on the way down, so it might be cleaned out by then.

• Mackinaw Shelter to White Pass. Some good gain with switch backs and a long ridge trail. Had several snow crossings coming in – all but three melted out on the way down.

• White Pass to Foam Creek & Glacial Basin. I’m not an expert of all the peaks in the Cascades, unlike my climbing partner. I believe we took the winter route about 2 miles in up snow slopes and a scree – then down a scree and glissaded into a basin.

• Glacial Basin to Glacial Gap: Crossed a small basin, followed by a large basin. Hugged a high ridge line on the way up (seemed to be melting on our way down, we stayed low).

• Glacial Gap to Summit: When you go up glacial gap, if you hug to the left there is a ridge trail that undercuts a lot of slower snow travel. We didn’t see this until the way down.

• There is a boulder crossing before you reach a pass. The rock fall is real. There was a noticeable increase of rocks lying on the field on the descent. Went up Disappointment Cleaver/Gerdine Glacier. There were some crevasses that were growing and a wall of serac ice. The last 2000 ft is a switch back scree and a steep snow climb. A mountainessa I spoke to yesterday mentioned she had cut in good steps. They definitely were.

• Warning about summer route: We tried to take the summer route to leave the basins. There was a visible boot path but we noticed it disappeared by the time we reached the ridge. Instead of turning around, we pressed forward and it was a pain with the steep, slick snow fields and slippery heather. In retrospect, I would have turned around and gone up the winter route near White Chuck.

Thoughts: Gorgeous trip. Just stunning. My climbing partner has been here many times over four decades and said he had not seen better conditions. I estimate there were only 15 people there that day. If there is ever a zombie apocalypse, I will definitely go to Glacier Peak for safety.

Lessons Learned:

• I don’t have hardy feet. I didn’t bring separate approach shoes for the first ten miles (which grows longer as the season progresses). I wanted to undercut weight, but my feet are butchered. Some people can handle mountaineering boots on trails, but I can’t.

• Periods that are late and magically start Day 1 on your way to White Pass sucks ass. Summiting Glacier Peak with 2/3rd your energy level sucks ass.