[gbanks19]

I want to thank Matt Lemke for posting an inspirational trip report from two weeks ago (in finishing the Bulger list!), which frankly inspired me to get at it. So many words to describe this trip and tell the story, but I can't compete with Matt for finishing the Bulger List. I can however say that I am proud to have finished the Volcano list, which was my first goal when I moved to Washington in 2016. I climbed Rainier two weeks ago in less than 24 hours to avoid incoming storms and finished things off with a 25 hour round trip climb of Glacier, climbing to White Pass after work on Friday in the dark and setting up a bivy base camp there. Aside from spectacular late October weather, I wanted to post these pictures to show how much the terrain can change this time of year (compared to a trip report from two weeks ago). The unsung heroes of this trip were the awesome mushrooms in the forest and a number of nocturnal wildlife encounters: multiple hooting owls, a nearby elk call, and my light reflecting off the eyes of a mysterious gang of animals ("please be deer, please be deer"). Overall, this was my first time truly visiting the Glacier Peak Wilderness. I had been in the area on Sloan and Pugh, but the terrain diversity of this climb was truly special. You don't have to climb any mountains to enjoy the wonderful diversity of this area: ancient forests full of moss (and interesting mushrooms), gorgeous alpine ridges, martian boulder basins, all surrounded by glaciers. The trail quality itself is as nice as it gets in Washington.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/5hyfN23hbu1z1z2h7

[Michael Lewis]

wow those reds at White pass! wow!

[gbanks19]

The reds in alpenglow were special. I should add, these were all iPhone photos without alteration on google images. An actual photographer would have had a field day. It looked like the Painted Hills.

[Brushbuffalo]

Spectacular, and you probably had the whole mountain to yourself.

[gbanks19]

There were actually three other people enjoying some good weather! I can say that I had Disappointment Peak to myself as I was the only person who scrambled off glacier.

[Justus S.]

Very nice.

[Mikey]

gbanks19 wrote:

Quote:

my light reflecting off the eyes of a mysterious gang of animals ("please be deer, please be deer").

At night in the darkness the color of animal eyes reflecting from light from a flashlight or vehicle headlights provides an indication of the identification. I did odd jobs at a beef (hereford) cattle farm when I was in high school and driving to the farm at night we could see the eyes of the cattle (bluish), deer (bright white), and bears eating fruit in an old orchard. I do not recall the bears' eye colors but I do remember that the bears did not look into the truck headlights. On the internet there is a report: "the B.C. Selkirks, the cougar's eyes glowed yellow/gold when my headlamp caught it at about 30 meters distance"

[Jordan]

Hey there, those are some great fall pictures. Would love to be in that area this time of year. You did the route over disappointment peak? I was there in august and attempted but did not bring crampons so turned back near the top of disappointment. I'm going back up next year, can you tell me your specific route you used? Does the trail cross the last snowfield near the top of disappointment? Thanks

[gbanks19]

Hey Jordan. I climbed straight up the ridge that you can see in my 9th picture and did not deviate east or west by more than 20 feet. That was taken around 9000 feet. I stayed directly on that ridge line all the way to the summit. Compared to the cal topo tracks, I stayed consistently 50-150 feet west of that line. It was class 3 to the top, albeit I had to make a single class 4 move to top out (5 vertical feet). There was more or less no snow until the summit pyramid and I did not use crampons due to sun cooked conditions, although I had them in my bag. I did not cross any snow fields on Disappointment. Happy to answer any other questions you may have or post my Gaia tracks or draw a line of what I basically did. In the end, it looked like there were tons of good scramble options up high so it may be possible to find a better way to negotiate the crux top out, but I felt very comfortable with the move. Oh and the eyes were bright white, thanks for that bit of info!

[moonspots]

[gbanks19]

Trust me, I will gladly camp out in the future! Climbing Rainier after work on a Friday is how you peak bag and make yourself proud, but it is certainly not the way to enjoy the mountains. That said, someone who posted on this trip report (not going to say who!) has the record RT time on Glacier to my knowledge in just under 8 hours. Pretty amazing.

[Jordan]

[gbanks19]

Obviously the terrain varies considerably depending on the snow conditions. Here's what I took.

[Brushbuffalo]

[timberghost]

popular area this year