Basic Glacier Climb - Glacier Peak/Disappointment Peak Cleaver

All nine of us hiked to camp in trail runners or hiking boots. The trail was in excellent shape, with the notable exception of the bridge with the missing railings. Bugs were only an issue as we got close to White Pass, but not an issue after White Pass. The camping area was empty when we got there, and only one other group showed up on Friday. No real water sources on the switchbacks, but some once you reached the PCT.

Summit Day, moving at 4:45 with clear skies. Lots of water sources before Glacier Gap and a couple just after on the descent down from Glacier Gap, after that nothing. I would suggest filling up before Glacier Gap. At the gendarme going up the ridge we opted for the scramble route (climber’s left) on the way up and stayed on snow on the way down. Getting on/off the ridge onto the snow/glacier was easy and straightforward. We opted for scramble up, snow down mostly for efficiency.

The cool glacier is starting to open up a bit, and some of the snow bridges are melting out. We noticed a significant difference on the way down than on the way up where we bypassed at least one snow bridge on the way down that we had taken on the way up. Once we reached the saddle between Glacier and Disappointment (48.10606, -121.11294) we unroped, took off our crampons, and took the ridge up to the summit. We spent about 45 minutes hanging out on the summit before retracing our route back to camp. 

On Sunday, we broke camp at 7:15 and had an uneventful hike back to the cars with multiple stops for berries at White Pass and along the PCT. Arrived at the car a little after 1 to find a notice as I forgot to put my parks pass out.