After waiting weeks for a good weather and avalanche conditions window, we finally had our chance for a winter summit!
The road is completely clear of snow until you reach mile marker 19 (trailhead is at mile 20), but any four wheel drive can make it over.
We got off to a late start, leaving the car about 9am. We were not in too big of a hurry because we had already planned for an overnight. The river crossing wasn't bad and the water seemed to be pretty low. The hardest part was maneuvering through the extra tree branches with large packs on. We were carrying a bit more weight than normal do to the cold temperatures that we were expecting that night.
The climbers' trail was in great condition and was easy to navigate up until the boulder field, where we hit deep snow. Here we put on our snowshoes. It was very slow going through this area due to the deep snow and steep terrain. We were also mindful of avalanches in this area because we could see slide debris from earlier in the week. We tried to stay further to the right as to keep a distance from the rockface.
Once above the snow covered boulder field, things got a bit easier and we made our way up to the ridge just above Inspiration Glacier. This is where we camped for the night as to avoid any slide danger. Plus the views of Glacier Peak, Johannesberg, Sahale, Boston, Torment, and Forbidden looked amazing!
The next morning we started around 5am, making our way up the glacier to the summit. The snow was, once again, deep on the glacier which slowed things down a bit. Closer to the top we were worried about the possibility of large cornices around the Knife Ridge. We were surprised to find that was not the case but still took extra caution due to the large build up of snow. Only spent about 10 minutes on the summit due the cold and began to make our way back down.
Beautiful weekend and a beautiful mountain!
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