Wa Volcano Cirque Completion Glacier Peak

Just took the Time to write up a Big TR but then it got erased so this is somewhat cut and pasted for another TR

Earlier in the Season I had spoken with somewhat knowledgeable about the area and he said that the road was closed because of flooding causing an extra few miles. Well after doing some research I found that the extra few miles was 6.5 each way making the total trip 48 miles.

The plan was to start Thursday night directly after work and get as far up the trail as possible before night fall. The team consisted of two people Skier Dan (crstlextrm from TGR) and myself and we planned on summiting and being back in less then 72 hours.
This was the final volcano in my goal to summit all five and it was going to be by far the longest slog with over 50 pounds on our backs on a trail that had not been maintained for at least a year.

After getting off work and meeting Dan in downtown Seattle we left immediately for the Mountain Loop Highway which is officially open. We arrived at the road closure for the trailhead a little bit before 6:00. After packing we were off on the abandoned road at around 6:30 hiking as fast as we could until putting up camp in the darkness of 10:00pm. We decided to make camp at a spot which had both a flat spot and water this was the base of Red Creek we traveled 10.5 miles that day.

Red Creeks Passing had been destroyed by the floods of 06 so we were going to have to find our own way across. The river was strong so wadding was not an option but we found a few unstable logs and hastily made our way across the creek. Some areas of the trail were overgrow with wetland vegetation (Devils Club) causing our speed to slowdown.
After hanging out at Mackinaw shelter for a few minutes we were on our way up the switchbacks towards White Pass which had a total of 27 switchbacks and a few spots littered in avi debris.

From White Pass we were going to have to traverse NE through some snow fingers to access a low saddle.Once on top of the Saddle we finally got our first view of the objective Glacier Peak. Once we found some good coverage Dan switched over to ski gear and dropped in the White chuck Basin. We hiked up the basin for around a mile to a high point offering 360 degree views, Dry ground and running water, when offered the choice I prefer not to sleep on Snow. That night we watched the Sunset over the Cascade Range and were resting for the summit day by 10:00 pm.

Total Distance Day 2 9.5 Miles

The Next morning we watch the sunrise while making breakfast before our push to the Summit. We were off for the Summit around 6:30 making a steady pass though the White chuck Glacier Basin. Next we crossed onto the Suiattle Glacier for a few minutes to traverse to a exposed ridge that goes right up to Dissapointment Peak. After climbing over a thousand feet we traversed the Suiattle to access a low saddle onto the Cool glacier. Once on the Cool glacier we had to deal with Crevasses so we traversed to were the snow bridges looked safest and made our way up to the saddle of Disappointment and Glacier Peak. From there it was a easy scree scramble on a exposed ridge until about 10,000 feet. The last part of the push up to the summit required climbing up a steep couloir for about 400 vertical feet.

The view on top of Glacier Peak is the most immpressive of all the Washington Volcanos the mountains surronding Glacier are all so agressive. We hung out for a hour and waited for the corn to soften then we scoped out a chute on the SW face. The Skiing was not going to be continuous but we were able to find a nice chute that dropped over a thousand feet from the summit before we would have to traverse over to the cool glacier. From here we would ride back down our ascent route to the low saddle between Suiattle and White Chuck Glaciers. When we arrived at the saddle instead of hiking through the flat White chuck Glacier Basin we decided to traverse the ridge up the North Facing Suiattle Glacier and find a nice spot to Ride the white chuck all the way back to base camp. After some navigating we found a good drop in spot that would lead us right back to camp. We made it back to camp a little bit after 4 and decided to rest preparing our bodies for the long slog back home the next day.

Total Distance Day 3     8.5 miles

The Final Day was exhausting we traveled 20.5 miles back to the car through steep snow fields across steep fingers of snow, Switchbacks and 11 miles of flat valleys crossing over more then a hundred Trees. The Trail is in okay condition With only 3 avi debris fields you have to deal with that went all the way to the river. Some spots are overgrown mainly in Wet Marsh areas and the road is Easy travels.

Total Distance   48 miles

More photos can be found in this TR
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/showthread.php?t=127678