Looks like this one needs an updated trip report. Scrambled up to Mount Roosevelt and Roosevelt North summits on a 90F hot day with SoaringEagle. A fun scramble with great views around the Snoqualmie peaks with plenty of super steep trail. The final steep heather section has a worn path now so it's not as frightening as older TRs indicate. But if not dry, I'd think twice about doing it. That's not the only risky part though, there's lots of steep trail leading up to it after Gem Lake and I ended up falling twice by stepping just off side hill trails. There are plenty of faint trails leading up to the summits and it's easy to get off track as we did several times coming down off the main summit, and it's not always easy to get back to the track given cliffs and ridges.
Headed out from Snow Lake TH around 7am to try and beat the heat. Not too many cars here at this hour on a weekday. Was pretty full when we returned around 3pm. Tons of people in all sorts of outfits going up to Snow Lake in 90 degree heat. You know it's a busy trail when there is a Taco truck in the parking lot on a weekday!
The trail to Snow Lake was uneventful and in great shape. Takes a long time once you get down to the lake to hike to the end of the lake. We were looking for water sources as we went as we knew we'd needed a refresher on the way out. The best one seemed to be an outflow from Snow Lake by the big log crossing at the midpoint of the lake. After Snow Lake there's some steeper ups and downs to get to Gem Lake, which is smaller and colder looking, very beautiful. Spied a spot where the trail hits a low point on Gem for a cooling dip on the way back.
From Gem Lake, the trail gets steeper and harder to follow. There's lots of places it can lead you off track. The first place as other trip reporters have mentioned is right after Gem, it looks like the good trail goes left. Don't take this, go steeper up right. Lots of steep stuff now and places where you'll use your hands. We were so focused that we ended up hiking up to the North summit first without realizing it. We were taking photos of the awesome views and high fiving until I looked at the GPX track and noticed this was not the main summit :) We headed over to the main summit and sure enough, there was the super steep gulley. You'll have to be careful with each steep, but it's not as bad as older reports indicate. We did not use microspikes or bring ice axes. Poles also did not seem useful either up or down. Precise footwork and hands for balance and veggie belays were the ticket. We did put on light gloves to protect hands and keep clean. There's a short bit of exposed scrambling to get to the top. We found a spot for two of us to get shade behind some rocks and had our lunch and hydrated and then headed back down after 20 mins. On the way down we did get off track a few times and had to do some steep traversing to get back, so beware of all the fake trails. As mentioned, I probably let me guard down a bit and slipped and fell a few times on steep side hill trails in the heather. Luckily I was able to use the heather to stop myself from going more than a few feet. At Gem Lake we stopped and cooled off in the water. I went in for a dip which was very cold but refreshing and kept me motivated for the trip out. There was a helicopter going into the boulder field before The Tooth a couple times on the way out. Hopefully there wasn't an accident. A million people coming up to Snow Lake on our way out and lots of people in the water. Saw a few that looked like they were not prepared for the heat, hope they made out OK.
Stats: 12.5 miles, 4290' gain, 7:45 total time, 1:20 stopped time.
Ended up drinking about 4L of fluid including refilling on the way out.
GPX track: https://www.peakbagger.com/climber/ascent.aspx?aid=2283083
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