Basic Glacier Climb - Glacier Peak/Disappointment Peak Cleaver

Our team of six drove up the night before the start of the trip to the Sloan Creek Campground.  The gravel road was in relatively good condition.  We rendezvoused at 5:00am and were on the trail by 5:45 for a four day, moderately paced trip to Glacier Peak. 

Most team members were in approach shoes with 37-47 lbs. packs.  We had pleasant, warm weather moving though the forest.  The large log, river crossing was missing its handrails in the middle.  The 15' potential fall provided the greatest exposure of the trip.  Mosquitoes were a minor annoyance when we stopped to eat and filter water at Mackinaw Camp before starting up the switchbacks.  As the forest gave way to alpine meadows we encountered madnesses of marmots.  The hills were verdant with a riot of wildflowers.  There were plentiful water sources along the trail.  We set up camp at White Pass above the campground to take advantage of the breeze.  After dinner the four women of the group hiked up to Red Pass while the two men read books.

In the morning we started up the undulating trail to Glacier Gap High Camp.  There were steep sections with loose rock so we put on helmets and sections of steep snow where we got out our ice axes and kicked steps in approach shoes.  There were around 8 tents at High Camp when we got there.  Luckily there was no shortage of wind breaks as there was a 15 mph wind and chilly enough for our puffies.  We encountered some brief sprinkles, but they dried quickly in the wind.  After dinner the three leaders hiked up to Glacier Gap and scoped out the route.  Disappointment Peak is in front of Glacier Peak, obscuring the lower right side.  From that angle they look like one mountain.  The weather predictions were for no freeze overnight, but the wind was likely to result in firm snow.  Later that evening we saw a family of goats up on Glacier Gap.

Summit day we woke up to dense fog.  This was to persist, on and off, at the lower elevations for most of the day.  It was wheels up at 4:45, in anticipation of a real time start of 5:00, but we were moving before 4:50.  We got out our helmets, ice axes and crampons for the descent down the crunchy snow from Glacier Gap.  We removed the crampons at the bottom of the snow and followed the path up the ridgeline.  The path disappeared near the gendarme.  One has the choice of scrambling around the gendarme or dropping down to the snow to the right of the ridge.  The snow route is faster, but there was a dicey section passing the gendarme with a knife edge between the slope and the moot.  The footing was good, but there is significant exposure (one could set a picket or two).  The scramble goes around the left side of the gendarme and continues for 100+ meters to a level spot on the snow without a moot.  We took the scramble on the way up and the snow on the way down.

We roped up on the snow and put on our crampons, then followed the boot track up mostly easy slopes on gradually softening snow.  We took a break on the rock outcropping at the top of the chute before the route turns West.  We encountered no crevasses up to this point.  We crossed four, step over crevasses (three open, one bridged)  on our way to the Glacier Peak, Disappointment Peak saddle.  There was a lot of rock and ice coming down off the South East face of Glacier Peak.  Fortunately the boot track is well out of range.  We left our ropes and crampons at the saddle and scrambled 900' to the Summit.  It was windy, but there was a sheltered area between the false and true summits.  We watched a team of Foothill Mountaineers approach the North Face ice climb. 

We dropped to the  Disappointment saddle and scrambled 170' up the ridgeline to tag the summit of Disappointment Peak.  The snow was starting to get sloppy on the way down.  We encountered a near whiteout after turning South West, but had no trouble following a boot track. 

We got back to camp, napped for 20-30 minutes, packed and headed down the trail towards the Alpine Tarn Camp.  We were concerned about crowding and wind at the Tarn, so we stopped on the flats of the dead receding glacier below the hill leading  up to the tarn.  It was a nice area.  The only drawback was the glacier silt in the water wasn't good for the filters.

We got up at 6:00 packed and hiked the 12.5 miles back to our cars.  We spent 45 minutes watching a madness of marmots, grooming each other, chasing each other and play fight.  We got back to our cars and my tire was flat.  I jacked it up and removed the lugs, but the wheel would not come off (when I got back, Les Schwab said it was corroded and needed to be kicked loose) luckily, Nathan Starr carried a portable tire compressor, so I was able to make it back to civilization. 

All in all it was a great trip with spectacular scenery and an excellent team.  It was nice having a relaxing four days where it was possible to get to know each other.