Basic Alpine Climb - Glacier Peak/Disappointment Peak Cleaver

Trip

Basic Alpine Climb - Glacier Peak/Disappointment Peak Cleaver

Five-Day Glacier Peak Climb - Olympia and Kitsap students have priority until June 25!

  • Fri, Aug 9, 2019 — Tue, Aug 13, 2019
  • Olympia Basic Alpine Climbing
  • Climbing
  • Basic Alpine
  • Basic
  • Adults
  • Basic Glacier Climb
  • Challenging
  • Mileage: 36.0 mi
  • Elevation Gain: 10,200 ft

TBD - group meets at Sloan Creek TH on the evening of Thurs. Aug. 8 or very early morning Fri. Aug. 9.

Olympia and Kitsap students have priority until June 25.

Itinerary:

Aug 8 – Meet at Sloan Creek campground in the evening. Divvy up group gear. Camp at TH.

Aug 9 – daybreak start to beat the heat and bugs. Make Mackinaw Shelter by 9am and fill up water. To White Pass (2800ft in 3mi) by 1:30/2pm. We’ll take time to pick berries, take pictures and snack. Set up camp. 10mi/4600ft gain.

Aug 10 – morning start along the Foam Creek trail to Foam Creek drainage. Traverse the drainage, up to the pass, and into the Whitechuck basin, a boulder-hop up and down a few ridges to an alpine lake. We’ll fill up water again and then do another boulder-hop/scramble with route-finding over the dead Whitechuck Glacier, hugging the toe of the Suiattle Glacier, up toward Glacier Gap. We should be able to fill up water right before Glacier Gap, where we’ll make camp for 2 nights. 5mi, 2500ft net gain, 600ft loss. This is a longer day than the mileage and elevation suggest. Hope to be at camp by 3pm.

Aug. 11 – We’ll start before dawn to the summit, hiking north over the actual glacier gap, down onto the ridgeline and up the ridgeline on dirt until it makes sense to step down to the Gerdine Glacier. Generally, the crevasses on this glacier are far away, but we’ll assess whether we want to rope up here. (Last year we didn’t, so that we could move through the rock fall area below Disappointment Peak at our fastest individual paces.) At the top of the rock fall area, below the transition from the Gerdine to the Cool Glacier, we’ll definitely rope up. The place where the glaciers meet can be jumbled, with snow bridges and route finding around crevasses. We may belay each other across the snow bridges, set a running belay or look for end runs. This is also the steepest part of the climb. Once on the Cool Glacier, the pitch eases, but we’ll still be probing and on the lookout for crevasses. Arriving at the ridge, we’ll probably remove crampons, unrope and scramble up rock amd scree to the summit. Once we’ve had our time at the summit, we’ll head down, put on our glacier gear again and go for Disappointment Peak, which is a 30-min snow hike from that juncture. After that, we’ll head down, fill up water on the way, and make camp at Glacier Gap for a 2nd night. 6.2mi RT, 4000 net gain and loss. Last year we summited in 5hrs.

Aug. 12 – We’ll get up at a leisurely time and be off by 9am, reaching White Pass around 3pm. There is also the option to continue past White Pass 2.5mi and camp at Red Pass on the PCT and scramble Portal Peak the next day. 5mi, 2500ft loss, 600 gain.

Aug. 13 – We’ll head down from wherever we camped the night before, be back at the cars by early evening and get food. 10-13mi, 4600-5000ft loss.  

Two of us summited last year on the same weekend, with ripe berries, minimal bugs and rapidly melting snow bridges. This is a favorite climb and place to be. But… Caveat Emptor: It is about 38 miles with more than 10,000ft elevation gain over the 5 days with heavy packs to 7200ft and a high point of 10,540. We’ll have 5 days of food, mountaineering boots for summit day, backpacking and glacier gear. It is not for the faint of heart. Do NOT sign up unless you have tested yourself or have a full schedule and fitness regimen *this year.* (Past years don’t cut it.) Be comfortable climbing in poor air quality – last year we were climbing through wildfire smoke.

Additionally, if you have any health issues – allergies, asthma, etc… please consider very carefully that we will be 20mi from anywhere and a long, bumpy ride out from the TH, and if anything happens above Foam Creek, it may be a long, difficult wait for a rescue party, much less to get yourself out.

But if you’re a hardy, stalwart backpacker, and you don’t mind bugs or being out for almost a week, this is one of the easier glacier climbs you can do to get graduation credit and for many experienced climbers it is the last of the Big 5 Washington Volcanoes they hope to tag (Rainier, MSH, Adams, Baker, Glacier).

Route/Place

Glacier Peak/Disappointment Peak Cleaver



  • USGS Glacier Peak West

    USGS Glacier Peak East

    USGS Sloan Peak

    Green Trails Mountain Loop Highway No. 111SX

    Green Trails Glacier Peak No. 112

    Trails Illustrated Glacier Peak Wilderness
  • See full route/place details.
Roster
Required Equipment

Required Equipment

  • The Ten Essentials
  • Mountain boots that can accept crampons (hiking boots only if previously tested with crampons!!!)
  • Approach shoes - absolute necessity to save your feet and your summit bid!!!
  • Crampons (aluminum OK)
  • An ice axe (not technical ice tools)
  • A back pack (40 to 70 liters)
  • Webbing and accessory cords
  • Texas prussik and waist prussik
  • 1 picket with sling and carabiner
  • 3 non locking carabiners
  • 3 locking carabiners
  • Large pear-shaped locking carabiner
  • Belay device
  • Climbing harness
  • Helmet
  • Rescue pulley
  • Fleece or puffy jacket
  • Rain jacket and full-zip rain pants
  • Belay gloves
  • Warm gloves or mittens
  • All backpacking gear (group gear TBD)
  • Money for driver and food afterward
Trip Reports