[peter707]

The snow would be consolidated, the glacier would be covered, and the weather forecast was good. With any luck, there might even be a bootpack. Sunday seemed like the right time for Glacier Peak! Glacier Peak (10,541′) was also my final WA volcano (5/5), so I was excited to have an attempt at finishing my current peak list. The standard Glacier Peak route has a few variations on how to handle Disappointment Peak, the Glacier Route vs the Scramble Route.

Glacier Peak

North Fork Sauk Trail, White Pass, PCT, White Chuck Glacier, Glacier Gap, Suiattle Glacier, Cool Glacier, Glacier Peak

On this trip, I'd be joined by Chris. Chris is a strong runner, hiker, and skier. We've hiked and skied a bunch of mountains together and it's always going to be a wild, intense adventure. There's one thing that's constant about Chris is that everything is _FAST_. Running, skiing, hiking uphill, eating, driving over potholes it's going to be fast & furious until the wheels fall off. So if I go with Chris I need to have my systems dialed. As long as I'm being efficient Chris has no issue with me being at any speed I need to be at for the objective at hand. In fact Chris even had a petzel rad kit which would allow us to take the glacier and skip the `4-9 hours of methodical stepping` required on Disappointment Peak Scramble Route. We drove up on 06/24/2023 evening, listening to the Western States 100. We heard Courtney Dauwalter beat the course record by 78 minutes as we drove through Darrington, WA. The stoke was high, and we knew nothing can stop us! I naively told Chris i can pull it off in 12-14 hours, since the STOKE WAS HIGH. We sped through the potholes on the mountain loop `highway` and ended up at the North Fork Sauk trailhead. Chris assured me that the Glacier Peak Wilderness is the most underrated area. Just as impressive views as MRNP, but far less crowded as a result of the long approach.

Giant Toad on the approach

Gear List and N.F. Sauk Trail I tried to pack light but have the necessary items. This was the kit for me (mostly in my pockets since 5.5L doesn't fit much) Navigation: GPX watch, trail markers Light: headlamp Sun protection: 1oz sunscreen & sunglasses First aid kit / gear repair kit: ski strap Shelter: Raincoat, puffy, softshell pants Food: 4x clif bars (800 calories), chex mix (1000 calories), doughnuts (400 calories), caffeinated tailwind (1,400 calories used) Water: 2L water capacity, water filter Equipment: Instep crampons, hiking poles, trailrunners, 5.5L vest, harness Chris brought the following: Navigation: GPX watch, InReach, phone Light: Headlamp Sun Protection: sunglasses, sunscreen Shelter: wind layer, sun hoody, insulation layer, rain layer, pants layer, space blanket, gloves Food: 4 Honey stinger wafels, 2 clif bars, 1 gel, maybe 1000 calories of these oat/granola things, and then maybe 5 or 6 scoops of caffeinated tailwind Water: water & water filter Equipment: microspikes, ice axe x2, poles, harness, petzel rad crevasse rescue kit, 2 ice screws, a 60cm sling, and an extra pulley, blue bag, 15L run pack After a fairly solid 5 hours of sleep, we headed out at 2:58am on 06/25/2023 under the very bright stars. I ski strapped an ice axe to my hiking pole since it doesn't fit in the 5.5L vest. Everything else was stuffed in my pockets and off we went. Despite the stars, it made sense to use the headlamp, since the forest was dense with some hard-to-see rocks in the trail. There were some giant trees and a giant toad, and this is a good time to mention that the trailhead is the lowest of the WA volcanos, down at around 2000ft. The first 6 miles were smooth except for the occasional blowdown or stinging nettle or creek. Chris did me a huge favor and attached my ice axe to his pack to reduce the odds of me falling on it while running. Soon the trail started to go up the hill with purpose, I started eating doughnuts.

Alpenglow

Climb #1: White Pass The next 2-3 miles had a solid haul of climbing, going up several thousand feet. In the first thousand feet I was trying to go too fast, with my heart rate at about 80% of max instead of the desired 70-75% for such a day. Probably lost ~100 calories of glycogen at this time from this error. Soon, we were above the trees and we saw alpenglow on the mountains on the other side of the North Fork Sauk River. Near the top of white pass we saw a very large black bear, I'm not sure how it's already so big this early in the season.

Bear

White Pass (continued) & PCT & Foam Creek Bootpath flats Soon White Pass trail joined up with the PCT at around 6000'. For a short time we followed the PCT, which was largely flat. There were some snow chutes (some with running water underneath), that had to be crossed with care. We intentionally broke many of these since it was clear these were going to break very shortly. Soon we made a left onto the Foam Creek Bootpath, and crested a ridge underneath White Mountain. On the other side of this ridge there's a lot of snow since it's on the east aspect with considerable sidehilling. Eventually this trail disappeared, and we turned left and briefly climbed over the ridge near Marmot Knob. We filled up on water here since it was unclear if we'd have water sources again until the way back down. (it turned out there's a few more sources near Glacier Gap but we didn't know that)

Glacier Peak looking far away

White Chuck Glacier to Glacier Gap Next we followed the bootpath across the lower fragment of the White Chuck Glacier to Glacier Gap. Lots of sidehilling but solid runouts. I don't think we got a huge refreeze because it wasn't that firm. We found several different lakes at various stages of melting, but we didn't go near them. Glacier Peak was still looking far away, and I was starting to get concerned about having used a large portion of energy without being at the mountain yet. Already we were fairly committed, probably around ~13 miles in, and I was getting a bit concerned.

Snow-covered Lake

Glacier Peak still looks far away

Gerdine ridge bootpath At last, it felt like we were on Glacier Peak. Disappointment Peak and Gerdine ridge began to tower above us, and I was suddenly very happy not to be going over Disappointment Peak. I was getting pretty tired, and I filtered water once again at what I was again expecting to be the final water source.

On the mountain at last!

Disappointment Peak looms

Chris went charging up the ridge, and I slowly creaked into motion yet again. I started to have less situational awareness at this point, because I took my left glove off to apply sunscreen while running, and my glove disappeared. I have no recollection of where the glove went, and I couldn't find it within ~100 vertical feet of retracing. I paused to take stock of the situation, this was not ideal. While the day was mostly clear, there was still a bit of wind above 8,000' and carrying a metal ice axe would get my left hand cold. However, I was able to mitigate this by pulling my sun hoodie over my hand, not sticking my hand into the snow, and mostly carrying the ice axe with my other hand. Nonetheless, I had some backup plans involving a ski strap and an extra shirt if necessary. I also had several layers I could put on, which would boost core temps and therefore heat up my hand as necessary. In the end this was not necessary and I could stay in my sun shirt the entire day. Suiattle Glacier, Cool Glacier At this point we took a quick break to transition equipment. I put on my instep crampons and Chris put on his microspikes (or perhaps he did earlier at White Chuck Glacier?). I cached one pole, a water filter, and the remaining tailwind at the start of the glacier.

Suiattle Glacier

Disappointment Peak had fairly constant rockfall, loud enough to hear from a half mile out. Nothing massive, and it all seemed to be going in the moat so we were not too worried about it. I was very happy to be on the glacier. The only complex part of the glacier was the transition onto the Cool Glacier. It didn't need roping up but it was clear this transition region of the glacier was going to become nasty in the next few weeks. ~6 people had just trotted down the bootpath a few minutes before on this spot so it felt fairly tested. I still jumped over where I suspected the bridge was onto the more-solid ice above. A person does not have to be a glaciologist to see that the Cool Glacier is moving faster & in a different direction from the Suiattle Glacier, which will cause some odd glacier activity at this spot.

Suspect Glacier Transition

The cool glacier itself had a few small cracks but nothing noteworthy, and there was no moat. It was fairly simple to transition onto the ridgeline near disappointment Peak.

Cool Glacier - Small Cracks Appearing

Final ridge / slope At this point we had logged ~9000' of vert for the day and I was exhausted. There was some cloud activity that was starting to look sinister, but it was still about 5 miles away. I studied the cool glacier carefully to prepare for a speedy exit if necessary, and then it was time to climb up the last 600 ft. Chris got far ahead to avoid possible rockfalls. The last 200 ft start to get ~35 degrees, with a mix of rock and snow, but it was manageable given the softness of the snow (and the ice axe). I was about 200 ft from the top when I heard some whooping, Chris was at the top. He wrote at the summit register, and saw the entry for Joel who climbed it last fall in Crocs.

Found Joel Gartenberg on the Summit Register

I joined about 15 minutes later. I joined Chris at the summit with a mix of joy & pride at what we had accomplished, concern about the approaching clouds, and mild trepidation at the descent, which I now knew was a stiff 17.8miles and 1300 vertical ft. Thusfar we had spent about ~9 hours 30 minutes ascending, it was now 12:30. After about 10 minutes of relaxing, we decided to head down before the cloud got any closer (which was lurking around disappointment peak). On the positive side, the cloud was now blocking the sun from hitting the glacier so perhaps it'd reduce the glacier movement.

Got up there!

Concerning clouds

Chris moved inexplicably fast down the 35 degree snow, somehow finding 30 degree pockets to glissade on despite the poor-looking runouts and intermittent rocks. I decided to take it slow and boot it cautiously since I'm wearing larger spikes and could catch them on a rock. Soon I was able to plunge step once I was below the top 200 ft. Chris was already at the base of the saddle and was now running up disappointment peak from the north, benign side. He turned around and we met back up at the top of cool glacier. Cool Glacier Descent Because the cool glacier is at a benign angle, we were able to make great time. The snow was perfect for downhill movement, each step was 6 ft and would glide another 3 ft after each landing. I was also enjoying the downhill, and letting the snow push me forward effortlessly at 4mph. Alas, it was too good to be true, and soon we were at the Cool-Suiattle transition. Cool-Suiattle Transition

Illustration of the Cool-Suiattle Glacier Transition

A few more thin cracks had opened up during the previous ~2 hours, so we got out the glacier equipment for crossing the Cool-Suiattle transition. It's a lot easier to stop a crevasse fall from the downhill side rather than the uphill side, so we decided the heavier person would be on the uphill side. There was one specific spot I didn't trust, so I gave Chris 5 ft of slack (he weighs 50lb less than me), I got in the self-arrest position, and he jumped over the suspect region. He landed uneventfully, and we proceeded ~30 ft forward until I got to the suspect region. I was thinking about asking him to place the ice screws, but I heard some weird crunching coming out of the glacier so I told him to run downhill. Since he's on the downhill side, his momentum downhill away from the crevasse would help with arresting any fall / yoinking me the last few feet forward. I hopped over and smoothly kept going. Suiattle Glacier down to Glacier Gap Once on the Suiattle, we were again taking large plunge steps and moving down the glacier at a superb pace. It's not quite fault line for glissading, but it was close enough to run down without the sidehilling being an issue. We were gliding down the glacier, still roped up. It was as if jogging was crossed with rowing, since our steps were staying in sync. We met another party there, going up around 1:30pm or so. I've never ripped down a glacier with such pizzazz, now at ~5mph with Chris pushing the pace forward. We picked up our equipment, and we got back onto the ridge. Soon, I filtered another 2L, filled up with tailwind, and we proceeded up through Glacier Gap. The cloud was now above us, but there was no thunder or precipitation. This was nice because the snow stopped changing, because more snowmelt would mean more postholing through flat snow sections near the White Chuck Glacier. Glacier Gap, White Chuck Glacier, Foam Creek bootpath flats While mostly downhill, this next section had a mix of downhill, flats, and uphill. I was now pretty exhausted so I was walking on the snowy flats, it just didn't make sense to spend energy on flats when I could get a lot more time savings from using that energy on the trail. We passed some campsites with 5 tents around, perhaps an Alpine Ascents team? There was a nice glissade opportunity, probably around 30 degrees, near the start of the Foam Creek bootpath, that was a lot of fun. The runout was good so I glissaded as well as Chris.

Marmot

Marmot

Getting onto the PCT My situational awareness was getting worse, and I went past the 170 degree turn onto the PCT. Instead I kept going forward the wrong way. Chris ran back towards me and said something when he ran past but I couldn't hear it fast enough. I thought he was just going off to bathroom or bagging some other peak or something. I saw a bunch of people camping. I was sort of puzzled but kept going for a bit but the scenery was clearly different. Pilot ridge was not where it was supposed to be in the distance, it was off to the right instead of the left. So I turned around and started looking at the gps unit and realized i'm going the wrong direction on the PCT. Some folks from the campsite asked me if I was confused, and I asked them to confirm which direction on the PCT leads to the North Fork Sauk trailhead. They confirmed it was the other way, so I reversed and went west instead of east on the PCT. It would have been 34 miles to Stevens Pass instead of like 10 miles to the NF Sauk Trail so that would have been a big error. White Pass / North Fork Sauk Trail Soon I was heading downhill at White Pass, about 26 miles in thusfar. I talked to Chris, and I told him he can run back to the car if he wants since there's no more turns on the trail and my navigation is working well. For me, I was hoping to go a bit slower, since I was feeling very fatigued. Plus, he could sleep at the car to make the drive home safer. I said `we can totally make it by 15 hours!` and Chris said `trust me this is going to blow past 16 hours` (he was right). Time-wise, this was his longest activity although he'd run further at some organized 100km. Off he went running speedily down White Pass. Oddly enough I saw him 5 minutes later, I asked him `what's up and why are you down there?`. He said he had a sliding fall down the snow chute while running too fast sidehilling. I guess the runout wasn't that bad but not ideal. I crossed that slope cautiously, plunging my poles 10 inches deep and placing my feet carefully. Chris headed off for a second try at running to the car, and told me to get back to the car by 9pm (4 hours from the current time) or he was going to call SAR. I couldn't figure out if he was joking. I was too tired to articulate why that was unnecessary, that I had water filtering ability, jackets for overnight, 600 calories of tailwind, headlamp so that would be highly irresponsible. At any rate I told him to give me until 10pm (5 hours left), which he agreed, plus I thought it's well within my abilities to walk 9 miles in 5 hours downhill. I saw several people and groups heading up, they all looked relatively fresh and happy and some asked for Glacier conditions. There was a one solo climbers, a few guided groups, and non-guided groups out there. From my observation, the key is to do this journey in 3 days, [13 miles day 1, 10 miles day 2, 13 miles day 3] or [9 miles day 1, 15 miles day 2, 9 miles day 3] or something. North Fork Sauk Trail At this point, I'm ready to be done. There's no way around it, the day was 30 miles and there's still 5 miles left. I sank below the treeline and if I was alone, I would have put on my jackets (puffy and rainjacket) and slept for a few hours (or overnight). I was able to jog in ~14 minute miles, and structurally i was feeling fine. It didn't hurt any more to run than to stand still, but I kept inexplicably walking each time I lost focus. I fixed the following things which helped: a) dumped rocks out of my shoes (still there from disappointment peak ridge) b) removed excess clothing (heat) c) dunked my head in the stream (heat) d) found a few more oz of chex mix and ate them Thunder started booming and I was a bit worried about those above on the ridge-line, for the first time I was happy not to have been camping at 6000'. I felt like Glacier peak was the host and this thunder was it telling us, it's time to leave. At this point my brain started playing a variety of different music or movie soundtracks from the past, which was pleasant. Mentally I had mapped this run onto Lake Union and was imaging which landmarks i was next to, running with Ariana. I probably should have paid attention to reduce the amount of stinging nettle I was running into.

- Paramore: Misery Business (2007) Next I saw some giant old growth trees and it switched over to the "Sound of Music" sound track.

- The Sound of Music | "The Hills Are Alive" (1965) After that I tried to think of some songs that were a bit faster. But not too fast.

- "Potter Waltz" - Goblet of Fire (2005) This was a considerable improvement and I was jogging it in at 14-minute miles. I signed us out at the registry and happily trotted over to the car, where Chris hadn't even fallen asleep yet! What a day. [16 hours 20 minutes car2car, arrived at 7:20pm] https://www.strava.com/activities/9335652265 (me) https://www.strava.com/activities/9336190974 (Chris)

[awilsondc]

Nice job! That's a big day. Those last five miles back to the car are really annoying when you're fatigued like that. Congrats on finishing the WA volcanoes!

[Exmoor]

Appreciate the report. I've been thinking about doing this one in one shot myself, and its very useful to have the Strava tracks to see exactly what the distances and elevations involved are. That last section from where the trail flattens out near the old shelter to the trailhead are the worst. Feels like you're almost done for hours. I had to come in from Meander Meadow a few years ago due to a fire closure and despite being much, much further it was almost worth it just not having to trudge through those last 6 miles (although the end of Meander Meadow is a similar slog).