Glacier Peak Disappointment Cleaver

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Glacier Peak was the last of the 5 Washington volcanoes for me to climb. I was extremely excited to start this adventure to finally accomplish this goal of mine, to summit all 5 Washington volcanoes. The original plan was to hike about 2/3 of the way to the summit of Glacier Peak, and stay one night there. Then, to summit on day two and spend a second night back at the same camp, or somewhere a bit closer to the trailhead. Then, to exit on the morning of the third day. Due to excitement and some other factors, this plan changed as went...

North Fork Sauk Trailhead

I'm joined by two friends I met during my Alpinism 1 course with the American Alpine Institute, Gregory and Non. These two guys are awesome climbing partners. We spoke about climbing Glacier Peak during our course. Coincidentally, this was Gregory's last of the 5 Washington volcanoes as well! We would complete this goal together.

The first 6 miles of the approach is essentially a long easy hike along the North Fork Sauk river. It's pretty tree covered so, even on sunny days it's a pretty quick and easy going start. After the initial approach, you start to climb up to just below a ridge line and, the trail meets with the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) just for about a half mile until you reach White Pass. White Pass is just below White Mountain which sits 7,043ft. White Pass is also at the border of Snohomish county and Chelan county. From this point, you traverse following the ridge that extends from White Mountain.

About 5 hours and around 10 miles into our approach, it start to drizzle a little bit and we were in a cloud. It was quite unexpected but, we knew it would pass soon. Luckily, there were a ton of beautiful wild flowers to keep our spirits high. As we traversed across, eventually we would climb over the ridge into White Chuck Glacier Basin.

White Chuck Glacier Basin

Once we climbed over the ridge we expected a nice view of Glacier Peak only to be presented with an enormous cloud. Luckily it wasn't raining anymore, there were just a few straggling clouds making they're way across the pass. From here, our first option for a campsite was not too far ahead. White Chuck Glacier Basin Camp was about 13 miles into the approach, and toward the beginning of the basin. We started to spot a few obvious camping areas. At this point, we started to discuss what we should do. We had to determine whether we were tired enough to stop and set up camp here, or did we feel strong enough to keep pushing to somewhere closer to the peak.

I could tell Gregory was very interested in getting closer to the peak and potentially camping at the closest campsite, Glacier Gap Camp. Non, on the other hand, was a bit more open to stopping. I could go either way. I didn't want to force the group to keep pushing if we didn't all feel strong enough to keep going. In the end, we decided to keep going. Glacier Gap Camp wasn't too much further away and, it would put us in a much better position to summit the next day. This is also where most people spend the first night.

Glacier Gap Camp is about a 14 mile approach, and sits at around 7,280ft elevation. It's named 'Glacier Gap Camp' because it is in a gap between two glaciers, White Chuck Glacier to the west and Suiattle Glacier to the east. Though, at this point, both glaciers have receded quite a bit. Anyway, It's a nice place to camp because the summit is only about 4 miles away and 3,250ft below the summit of Glacier Peak. The clouds were still covering Glacier Peak when we arrived at camp and setup our tents. After we had eaten dinner, we heard the people around us give out a little cheer, and there was some spark of conversation. We look up and, finally, get a glimpse of the beautiful mountain.

Summit Day

Considering there isn't much crevasse danger, and the peak isn't too far from camp, we decided to start hiking at around 3:00am. When we woke up and got out of our tents, we were extremely surprised to see Glacier Peak covered by a cloud, again.

No way, what the heck! The weather forecast definitely showed clear skies...

A little bummed, we just went towards to mountain hoping for the best. It was actually quite difficult to route find at the beginning. We were the first party out, so there was no one to follow. There also wasn't much of a trail to guide us. We eventually made our way up onto the beginning of a ridge, that leads up to Disappointment Cleaver.

To our satisfaction, and surprise, we broke through the small cloud that sit just above camp and extended south from us. We were granted with a phenomenal view of Glacier Peak lit up by the moonlight. The entire landscape was clearly visible, as the moon was so bright.

It was absolutely gorgeous. We didn't need to hike with headlamps, and that is such a special moment. Hiking in the middle of the night guided by moonlight is so great. It was also really funny to look back and see just camp, and anything roughly below 7,450ft, covered in a cloud.

We got to around 8,600ft in 1.5 hours and the sun was just barely starting to rise. The colors were magnificent. Unfortunately, my iPhone doesn't take that great of pictures in the middle of the night, but I still managed to get a pretty cool shot.

At this point we had the traverse across the glacier under a section that is known for rock falls. We quickly made our way across and up to Cool Glacier. Once you get to Cool Glacier at around 9,220ft you start to climb up to Disappointment Cleaver. From there it's a straight forward climb to the summit of Glacier Peak. It was 2.5 hours into our climb and we were almost the point where we start climbing up Disappointment Cleaver. The sun was starting to rise and the scenery was awesome, I felt so happy.

We gained the cleaver and start switch backing our way up. Glacier Peak is the most remote volcano out of the 5 in Washington and you can really get a sense of how far out in the wilderness it is when you are climbing it. There were mountains as far as the eye could see in all directions. The sun has finally fully risen and it started to get warm. The sky was filled with colors of pinks, yellows, blues and a hint of turquoise.

After a small steep section at the top of Disappointment Cleaver, we reached the summit! We got to the top of Glacier Peak in about 3 hours and 25 minutes. With this, Gregory and I successfully climbed all 5 of Washington's volcanoes!

I was so happy to be at the summit of this mountain on such a wonderful day.

I've finally done it, I've climbed all 5 Washington volcanoes in under 1 calendar year.

The Descent: The Long Slog

After taking a bunch of pictures and celebrating, it was time to head back. By the time we reached the section with a lot of rockfall, it was around 8:15am. I could already tell there were some new rockfalls. It was actually pretty sketchy, so I would recommend staying somewhat alert in this area.

We got back to camp and discussed a plan of action. It was either, to stay another night and maybe climb some other smaller mountains in the area or, to go all the way back to the trailhead and head home. We agreed to pack and give it a little time to decide how we felt.

We packed up and drank some beers, that we carried all the way up to camp, in celebration. It was very refreshing, and very well deserved. We all decided we wanted to try and get back home that day. I think, after the summit there was little motivation to stay and climb anything else. We all took a quick little nap before heading out.

The trail is actually extremely pretty, I'm glad we got to see the beginning section in sunlight. On our way up, this area was covered in a cloud and we couldn't see much. In total, out and back, the climb was just over 35 miles with over 11,000ft elevation gain. We did this in two days, and I felt extremely accomplished as well as drained, mentally and physically. In the end, it was totally worth it!