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Trip Report

Glacier Peak — Thursday, Jul. 6, 2023

Central Cascades
Glacier Peak 7-6-23, (photo by Nic Emrich)

Set out at 7 am 7-6-23 and no issues first 5.5 miles along the river. Then the 4.5 miles of switchbacks and trail to White Pass... there are a couple gulley's past the switchbacks that are snow covered so use caution crossing those. The 2 miles from White Pass to Marmot Pass is fine, with several snow-covered gulley's to cross but nothing difficult. Use your trekking poles. Most of the trail beyond Marmot Pass to Glacier Gap is snow covered and there should be some boot pack trails to follow, though there are some sections of rock/gravel and route finding is necessary. Stay to the right of the valley and keep working your way up to Glacier Gap (high camp) which is at 15 miles from the TH. Plenty of camp sites and snow free up there. There are ample streams along the way for water.

From Glacier Gap to summit and back is about 7 miles round trip... be prepared for ~6-8 hours to do this. We camped slightly further down and had 8 miles round trip and took 8 hours. Our summit day on 7-7-23 started out late due to being soaked the night before by a freak thunderstorm and pouring rain/hail. We set out at 10:30 AM and the snow was soft but we wore trail running shoes with Black Diamond aluminum crampons and OR gaiters, and the weather was great. No issues up the first glacier. At the top where the 2 glaciers meet (the ice fall) stay left of the rock piles and it should be a very easy hop onto the upper glacier. Rope up at the top of the lower glacier because there is a crevasse forming right along the boot pack there.

Once on the upper glacier, do not turn hard left and flank the side like all the other trails go (because all the climbing groups that we talked to ended up turning around and not making it - stating the glacier was not passable anymore this season). We went straight out onto the upper glacier towards the middle and weaved around a couple small crevasses then headed left up the middle of the glacier and had no problems route finding and safely passing by 3-4 large crevasses on our way to the upper end where we stowed the packs and made the hike up to the summit. The summit push is snow-free and no obstacles - the sign in register box is at the top West peak up on the rocks. We were the only ones to summit during those days and enjoyed great weather and calm winds at the top. It was about 5.5 hrs camp to summit, 2.5 hrs summit to camp. Then we packed up and hoofed it out to the TH and got to the car about 4:30 AM 7-8-23... a very long day. 37 miles round trip.

Glacier Peak 7-7-23, my route through center of upper glacier, (photo by Nic Emrich)
Crevasse crossing on upper glacier, 7-7-23, (photo by Nic Emrich)
Summit Glacier Peak! 7-7-23 early afternoon, (photo by Nic Emrich)
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