Day 1: Basic discussion, gear review, and crevasse rescue intro/review.
Day 2: Up into the snowfields in the Paradise area (south mountain) to review basic snow safety, rope team travel, and snow anchors.
Day 3: Entering at White River (mountain northeast) and up wooded trails to the Glacier Basin camp area, with more crevasse practice there.
Day 4: Up before dawn to move up the Inter Glacier and then the Emmons Glacier to Camp Schurman before the glaciers went soft in the heat.
Transitioning onto the Emmons Glacier on this route is a short but significant rock scramble / down-climb.
Setting up camp entails digging out a shelf for the tents, anchoring them, and melting snow for water. After that there’s a lot of sitting around baking in the summer heat with no shade to be had anywhere and no breeze on this particular day. Camp Schurman is a ranger station at 9,400ft with a spit of rocks and a field of snow suitable for camping just off the glacier and away from the runout for frequent rockfalls and avalanches above.
Day 5: Up at 10pm for the summit attempt. On this day the first several hours of this is a brutal slog up steep snow completely riddled with knee-deep footprints now firmly set in ice, with occasional small crevasse cracks to work around or over.
I turned around at 13,500ft (summit is 14,400ft). Unknown to me but revealed by later testing, I had picked up COVID traveling out to Washington and become symptomatic on the mountain. Between COVID, the altitude, the prior day’s heat, no sleep, and the exertion, at that point I hadn’t retained or taken in hardly any calories for ~12 hours, was severely nauseous, poorly coordinated, and on the verge of passing out. One of the guides hiked back down with me, which took a couple more hours but was uneventful.
Camp slowly accumulated people throughout the morning as people either didn’t start for the summit or turned back early. Much time was spent digging out a fancy seating area complete with cooking and water melting stations, followed by lively discussion on science fiction and other topics.
I was the last early arrival, about 3 hours before the successful summit team returned, comprised of only half the party. I managed to sleep a few hours and then eat some snacks to feel ok for the afternoon, before turning sick again in the evening though fortunately to a lesser degree.
Day 6: Up at dawn to break camp, hike down the Emmons Glacier, climb up the short rock pitch, hike and glissade down the Inter Glacier, get off the glaciers before they get too soft, and then hike the rest of the Glacier Basin trail and out of the park by mid-day. Fortunately I felt well enough in the morning to actually eat & retain breakfast, and felt good hiking the rest of the day other than a sore throat & congestion.
The obligatory stop for this route to get milkshakes shortly after leaving the park. Mine is huckleberry with huckleberry whipped cream.
