Glacier Peak Summit

[Rob]

After a setback on my attempt to summit Shuksan last weekend (thwarted by a corneal abrasion), I was happy to make it to the top of Glacier Peak on Saturday.

We did approx. 35 miles over 3 days, gaining a net of over 8,400 feet with a final summit at 10,541.

I'm beat, but it was a great trip!

[grundy53]

Beautiful!!! Nice work!

sent from my typewriter

[Skyvalhunter]

Congrats Rob on a fine accomplishment. Glacier Peak is near and dear to my heart. Thanks for sharing

[Watimberghost]

Those are incredible pics! I'm sure they only give a glimpse as to how incredible the experience was. Thanks for sharing

[Rob]

Thanks, I have been eyeing this one for some time now.  I feel privileged to have had a chance to make the attempt.

I must admit, this is the first climb I have done where while standing at the base, I thought to myself, that is one intimidating mountain...  It was pretty straightforward to attack, but looking up at it from base camp it was difficult to try and see how to go after the summit bid.

[Jacque]

Great pictures, been eyeing that one for a while, I just need to up it on my list of priorities.

[Watimberghost]

Where did you guys attack it from? Basecamp?

[Rob]

With the northern route pretty much closed out due to the road wash out, we came in from the south.

We started at the North Fork Sauk Trailhead, hiked to White Pass, then up to the far end of Glacier Meadows.  it was about 13-14 miles in from the trailhead.  We camped there for the first night. 

In the morning we headed out to Glacier Gap and from there we took the ridge line up to Gerdine glacier.  We roped up on Gerdine, and then intersected with the Cool Glacier.  There were a couple places where the crevasses were melting out.  On the way out one of are party put a foot through a crevasse and we were able to probe with ice axes into crevasses in several spots.  There were several folks headed up and traveling on the glaciers without ropes-riskier than my tastes, but to each their own.  After the Cool, we were back on dirt/rocks and we did the final push up the last 300 feet by climbing a somewhat steep snow chute that dumped us out right on top.  We spent about 30 min on the summit and then headed back to camp.  About 9-10 miles Round trip.  we were back at camp around 1pm and thought about pushing it out that night, but a couple in the party had some blisters they wanted to rest so we elected for an early start out the next day and stayed the night.

Hoping to get some time to check the mileage on the GPS's and get the exact distances nailed down.  We estimated 33 miles round trip, but I think we will be somewhere between 35 and 40.

Amazing country!

[quadrafire]

Is this the Glacier Peak above lake Wenatchee?
If so I was eyeing it this weekend......Impressive 

[netcoyote]

Did Glacier Peak with a team back in '88 from the north end well before the current access problems. Went up through the Kennedy Glacier. Awesome country up there. Did it again a few years later on the Scimitar Glacier. That access issue sure makes this one hard-arse climb. Anyone who hasn't done something this difficult can't truly understand the accomplishment. Makes that Adams trip seem like a walk in the woods, eh?

Congratulations on a challenging adventure.

[Rob]

I have not spent much time at Lake Wenatchee so I am not sure if you can see it from there or not...  It is a very tall peak, but given it's location it is not visible from too many places.

here is where it is located:

[Rob]

Did Glacier Peak with a team back in '88 from the north end well before the current access problems. Went up through the Kennedy Glacier. Awesome country up there. Did it again a few years later on the Scimitar Glacier. That access issue sure makes this one hard-arse climb. Anyone who hasn't done something this difficult can't truly understand the accomplishment. Makes that Adams trip seem like a walk in the woods, eh?

Congratulations on a challenging adventure.

Thanks, it was really gratifying to make this one happen.  Our climb leader has tried 3x to make this happen and had to call the climb due to weather.

Only one volcano left for me and I can mark off all the Wa Volcanos...  Rainer will probably need to wait till next year unless I can make an early winter climb happen - just too much on the calendar to make it work this spring/Summer.

[X-Force]

very cool. congrats on the summit. 
I was looking up at Glacier last night wondering if anyone was up there.

[hooker]

very cool!  Inspiring!

[fish vacuum]

That's awesome! 30 minutes at the top doesn't sound like enough. What a place to think.

[GoldenOscar]

Thanks for the pics and story.....looks like a great adventure.

[Call em in]

very cool.  Thank you for sharing