12 miles of hiking • 6500' elevation gain • 1 night
Went with friends this weekend for a saturday overnight on the mountain. Talking with folks at the trailhead the first morning, it sounded like half of the Northwest was up there.
One guy said that a ranger told him that there were hundreds of permits taken for the weekend. Not knowing how much of the various ridges were melted out (and lacking a snow shovel), my heart sank a little at the thought of being crammed in like sardines for saturday night.
We headed off and didn't hit continuous snow until the Morrison Creek crossing. After that the switchbacks that take you up onto the ridge overlooking the Crescent Glacier were buried; instead a steep, yet firm bootpack was there to follow. Most of the lower sites around 7800' were already taken as we moved up. Crossing the snowfield, we stopped at the toe of Suksdorf Ridge in the 8300' range, where we found a great campsite that was empty. After debating whether to keep on moving to lunch counter or staying put, we chose to camp lower and keep the weight off.
The night was beautiful with barely a breeze. A complete 180 degrees from our last time up here, where it was too loud to sleep. In fact, talking to another climber at the parking lot, evidently the previous evening had been nightmarish with winds so powerful, his tent was pushing into his face. Maybe he was embellishing, I don't know, but it felt really windy in Portland on friday at least.
Sunday morning, we headed out around 5am and took it easy. Once we got above lunch counter, I got curious as to how many people were actually there, and over the course of the day maybe 40 overall. Certainly not the 800 or whatever that I heard through the game of trailhead telephone.
We arrived at the summit later that morning and enjoyed the views, then returned down the well-defined glissade chutes. Overall, an amazing weekend with my only real complaint being that we were asked "where to go" at least six or seven times by other groups (I don't mind helping if I can, but please bring some navigational things with you next time!!).
Lastly, we found running water at Morrison Creek, 8150', 8200', 8350' (small flow at our campsite), ~9100' (the base of Pikers at the end of the last glissade chute), ~12000' and ~12200' near the west summit.
Comments
jon
August 8, 2012
Thanks Roman. One of member of our group is actually going back to do it again this weekend with his visiting brother. Right now feels like the best time to go with the amount of glissading that's possible.
Roman
August 7, 2012
This climb looks awesome right now. Great photos too!