[neek]

If you're going to climb Clark, it's best to start before 11:30 AM. And maybe don't pick a day when you know it will be buried in a cloud. Also, if you take the shepherd's trail route, have more than a vague idea of where the key gulley is along the ridge. At least I did one thing right: the route seems to be in great shape now, as long as you don't mind a little bit of steep and exposed snow. I hope to be back soon to finish, before the notorious mosquitoes hatch. Just a few items of note. The White River and Boulder Creek trails are in good shape, with only a few small trees down. The Boulder Creek at 4100' is knee-deep, frigid, and moving fast. Crossing it will remind you that you are alive. There are snow bridges across the upper crossing around 5000', but they are getting thin so be careful. Don't bother trying to find the shepherd's trail now since it's nearly completely buried; take a more direct approach. Meet the ridge around 6900' and proceed along its crest to 7300', where the bootpath ends and an obvious slope angles down. That's about as far as I got. I went down maybe 100', facing in and using an ice axe self belay because the runout was quite bad in spots. A bit of slow contouring on steep snow would have followed that, and then presumably a nice step-kicking walk to the summit. But it was nearly 7:00 and time to turn around. The days are so long now that I was only on lamp for the last half hour or so. Overall a great and much needed hike. No people, no bugs, no views...

White River

Fairyslipper

Mushrooms

Fungus

Yellow paintbrush

Boulder Creek along White River trail - good log bridge here

Someone lose a brain?

Glacier lilies were the main attraction along the Boulder Creek trail

At 5000', looking back down the valley

Red snow and cloud ceiling of doom

On the ridge

Looking down on the White River

Red lichen

Descending the ridge

False hellebore

Point 6435 in the distance. Behind it is Airplane Lake

Deer

[williswall]

Nice photos!

[MangyMarmot]

I failed on Clark a couple of weeks ago. Got to the same spot. The downclimb with steep very solid snow and terrible runout. I bet when this melts out the downclimb won't be so bad. Boulder creek was high and moving so fast that i didn't manage to cross it. I bashed through the slide alder on the West side f the creek.

[neek]

[Fletcher]

I’ve been in that gully a couple times. The first time I did Clark it was melted out and trivial. The second time was on a Dakobed Traverse in early July and it was partially melted out and sketttccchhyy. I love the long days right now, absolute favorite time of the year.

[kitya]

Your brain mushroom is gyromitra esculenta, they pop up everywhere right now! You are super brave to do Clark early with this much snow. I hiked clark+luahna in autumn, and it was like the hardest hike ever for me.

[Cyclopath]

Fantastic as always. This TR seems maybe a little more cinematic than normal, the waterfall and the watermelon snow pics set things up to look like a dark, foreboding kind of day.