Prusik Peak/West Ridge

[Provided by Yogesh Kumar - June 15 & 16th]
Started around 11:30 am on Sunday from Stuart Lake TH. Trail until the Colchuck Lake is in very good condition. Camped at Colchuck lake. Started at 4:35am from camp. Aasgard pass has short sections of snow higher up that need to be crossed but most of the pass from mid to low section is currently snow free. Water is available from streams and lakes until the upper basin. Early morning snow is frozen solid and some parties may find crampons useful in early morning on the steeper sections. We reached the Prusik pass around 8:30am without any major route-finding challenges. A short section of steep snow needed careful down climbing. Staying on the trail one can simply follow boot path.

As we assessed the weather conditions at the base of the climb, it was clear that conditions were not good for a safe and enjoyable climb. Clouds indicated coming rain and storm conditions that would have taken long time to clear putting us out of our acceptable return time window. We were back on the trail to Aasgard pass around 9:30am and hiked out at a gentle pace. We reached cars at 5pm.