Glacier Climb - Snowfield Peak/Neve Glacier

The hike in to Pyramid Lake was short and pleasant.  From Pyramid Lake the climbers trail was steep at times but easy to follow until we reached snow at 4,500'.  From 4,500' on the route finding was a little more difficult but manageable.  The snow was perfect for kicking steps all the way to the basin where we camped on ridge above the lake at 5'900'. 

Shortly after arriving to base camp a storm rolled in and it rained hard with strong winds all night.  We woke up at 3:30 a.m. and the rain and wind had stopped so we geared up and headed out of camp at 4:30 a.m. in heavy fog.  We crossed over the pass and started up the Neve Glacier and the wind picked back up and we also started to receive intermittent rain and sleet.  At 9:00 a.m. we reached the west shoulder of Snowfield Peak and began the scramble portion of the climb in hard rain and strong winds with poor visibility.  At 9:30 we were 200' below the summit and needed to traverse to the next gully but the traverse was covered in 12 inches of soft wet snow on top of slick rock.  The snow would not hold protection and was two soft to kick steps or support a climbers weight.  Do to the exposure at the traverse and the extremely poor snow conditions the summit attempt was abandoned.

We were back in camp in 2 hours and departed for the trailhead at 1 p.m. We reached Pyramid Lake at 5:30 p.m. and a member of the climbing party fell while crossing a log and broke her fibula just above the ankle (see incident report).  After a successful extraction of the injured climber by a search and rescue helicopter all member of the climbing party including the injured climber departed the trailhead at 10:30 p.m. 

The route is in excellent shape with the exception of the summit block which needs a week or two to finish melting out before it can be easily climbed.