Glacier Peak, North Fork Sauk River — Monday, Jul. 9, 2018

After being turned back a little over two weeks earlier by poor weather, I believed that I wouldn’t have another visit to Glacier Peak again this year since I have a list full of mountains in the state I haven’t been to before.  But there are mountains and there is Glacier Peak.  She is special to me since my first climb of her in August of 2015 and when a bluebird forecast came up this weekend, I couldn’t help but make a last minute decision to my Sunday plans and head back to this wonderful mountain.

Because I have written plenty about this mountain, I’m going to keep this one pretty bare bones and stick strictly to conditions.

As before, the trail is in great shape from the North Fork of the Sauk River trailhead to Mackinaw Shelter.  A few blowdowns to step over or go around but that is it.  Water sources can be found along the way.  I found the bugs only to be an annoyance when I stopped.

The climb from Mackinaw to White Pass is snow free now.  No obstacles in your way and a handful of water sources on this four mile stretch.  Wildflowers are starting to really come out.

After White Pass you start to hit some stretches of snow lingering in the gullies.  I took two routes through this section.  On my way in, about a mile from White Pass, I cut up a snow covered gully to a small saddle east of White Mountain.  This is a more direct route to the summit.   When you drop down into the basin below, you are faced with some steeper snow slopes but I was fine in my crampons and the run out isn’t too bad. On the way back, I chose to go the standard route and honestly regretted it a bit.  It’s a lot of transitioning from trail to snow covered gully and that last drop down into Foam Creek and climb back up is a pain as it is partially covered in snow.  I have included my track in the links so that you can have a better idea of what I’m talking about.  Regardless, this area is really starting to see some wildflowers bloom and I got a kick out of seeing all the marmots run about and squeal.

Once you have dropped down into that basin (I’m sure it has a name that I’m just ignorant of), the route is pretty much entirely snow covered.  Water sources are a bit scarce in this section but as you go over the next rise and into the basin formerly covered by the White Chuck Glacier, you will find a running water source on the north side of that basin.

There is a running water source right before Glacier Gap and one at the bottom of Glacier Gap as you head onto the mountain proper.  Obviously if you are camping and have a stove, you can melt any of the snow around you but for a C2C person like myself, these are extremely helpful.  Once past Glacier Gap, there were no running water sources that I saw.

From there it is pretty straightforward.  The Gerdine-Cool Glacier is really filled in still with only two or three crevasses starting to show anywhere near the route.  The area that made me the most nervous was the rockfall coming down from the Disappointment Peak area onto the glacier.   While on my trip up and down, there was none, you could see where recent rockfall had crossed the bootpath on the glacier.  I would move as quickly as possible through this area and if you can hit it early before the sun starts to warm it up, even better.

Final summit climb is melted out until the last 300 or so vertical feet but there was a great bootpath up this.  I did finally pull my ice axe out for this section.  I should note I left my crampons on for most of the snow sections but not out of necessity but mostly laziness.  

A lot of friendly climbers were met along the way and it was good to see so many out enjoying the mountain! The weather was nearly perfect for a fast and light attempt though I was feeling that sun coming off the snow as I was coming down. 

I would expect there to be significant snow coverage for at least a couple more weeks and I think the glacier will be in fairly good shape throughout July.

More Information on this Trip Report

• https://www.strava.com/activities/1690434375