Climbing Glacier Peak in a Day via the Disappointment Peak Scramble
*This post documents my Glacier Peak ATTEMPT. If you are hoping for beta on the climbing route this probably isn’t the post for you.*
My alarm went off at 11:45 pm on Friday evening and I attempted to motivate myself to get out of my sleeping bag. Amber rustled beside me and we both opened our car doors and began to don our trail running packs and shoes. Two weeks prior, I had texted Amber joking that we should attempt a car to car summit of Glacier Peak someday in the future. Her response, “Okay, how about two weekends from now?” Lesson learned to never joke with Amber about an effort like this unless I am 100% serious.
Truthfully, when Amber texted me back, I had no idea if I was even capable of this feat. My longest day in the mountains so far was around 20 miles with around 4,000 feet of gain. The Disappointment Peak scramble route we were looking at had us clocking in 34-36 miles with over 10,000 feet of gain. COVID lockdowns had also given me an unreasonable amount of anxiety surrounding technical objectives for the 2020 climbing season. My anxiety was so bad, I had all but given up on a major summit in 2020. I finally hit a point where I was so frustrated with myself that I decided to just give it a shot.
Leg One: North Sauk River Trailhead to White Pass
Our first hurdle was finding the trailhead in the dark in our delirious state. We wandered around before finally pulling out Gaia to direct us. Call it foreshadowing for what was to come later in the day. Once we finally found the trailhead, we started shuffling along around 12:18 am. Our goal during the flat river miles was to keep our pace at 20 min miles or lower, which I quickly realized was too hot of a start on an hour of sleep. We weren’t too far off at 22-23-minute miles though.
I had heard a lot of people say that White Pass was really difficult, but truthfully, I barely remember this section. Chalk it up to being in the dark and without a heavy pack, but I didn’t notice a major drop in our pace or feel like I was expending a ton of extra energy. Amber was struggling with sleep deprivation at this point, so I did my best to stay positive and crack jokes. After we crested the pass, we did a few easy flat miles before stopping for our first food break.
First light after we reached White Pass.
Leg Two: White Pass to the base of the Disappointment Peak Scramble
All of the climbing reports I had read on Glacier peak were from people who had climbed it in the snowier months of June and July. So, when we left the flat miles after White Pass and crested a ridge with our first views of Glacier Peak, I was slightly surprised to see a rocky basin with…no snow. This basin ended up being the unplanned crux of our attempt.
At first, we followed cairns with no issues and continued to make good time. Then we lost the route and started following the WORST ways over to Glacier Peak. Every time we thought we found the “trail” it would quickly disappear again and we would lose any sign of it. We climbed up a lot of steep loose rock and lost a lot of time and energy. Once we finally made it through, we crashed between some rocks to avoid the wind and take our second break of the day. At this point, I was questioning myself pretty heavily.
Never been so excited for an obvious trail in my life.
The route on the right is the WRONG way through the basin. Burning this in my memory for the next attempt.
We exited the basin and the trail became super obvious again. As we continued, we passed the tents of many people opting for a more relaxed pace up the mountain. Many jokes were made about crawling into one of the empty tents and resting for a couple of hours, but we somehow avoided the temptation. By the time we arrived at the base of the Disappointment Peak scramble route, I was staggering around like a drunken sailor and relying heavily on my poles to keep me upright. I looked at the route and seriously worried about my ability to make it down safely in the state I was in. I waffled for a bit about attempting to go a little further to see how I felt when we were suddenly engulfed in a cloud. I know I sound like one of THOSE people, but I took that sudden white-out as a sign that it wasn’t my day. We still had 16 miles back to the car and were essentially standing at the bottom of an Asgard Pass equivalent when it came to elevation gain and mileage. I knew Amber could summit without me, but she didn’t feel comfortable leaving me at the base in a whiteout with a fair amount of wind, so we opted to turn back together.
Our planned route up the mountain. I am coincidentally pointing at the spot where we encountered the whiteout and decided to call it.
Our “summit” selfie.
Leg Three: Base of Disappointment Peak Back to Trailhead
We turned and started back the way we came. I wasn’t pumped to go through the basin again, but to our extreme luck, we ran into Theresa Sippel and Jen Petrut on their way down from their successful car to car summit. They had struggled route-finding in the basin on the way up as well, so we all joined forces during this portion on the way out. By joined forces I mean I shuffled along behind them and Amber as quickly as I could. These ladies are CRUSHERS and I am very inspired by them.
The dreaded basin went by much quicker on the way out than in. Once we crested the ridge back to White Pass, we found multiple marmots frolicking around in the flowers. It had been cloudy and dark when we were initially on this portion of the trail, so I was excited to see the views I had missed on the way in. When we reached White Pass Amber and I took the third and final break of our adventure. I pulled out one of the soggy burritos I made for myself and couldn’t stomach it, so I filled up on candy and Stroop waffles instead.
Goodbye hell basin and Glacier Peak. Hopefully see you next year!
The sun finally came out in full force once we started down White Pass and I was happy to be heading back into the woods. When we reached the flat river miles, Amber and I opted to put in headphones and attempt to rage hike the rest of the way out. We made pretty good time until Amber’s plantar fasciitis started to give her a ton of trouble and I honestly started to bonk from a lack of calories at our last break. There wasn’t much I could do to help Amber with her foot pain other than cracking awful jokes, but Amber had an extra fried chicken sandwich that she gave to help me through my bonk. We passed a couple of climbers and backpackers and must have been such a hilarious sight with Amber limping in front and me blissed out eating a cold chicken sandwich/stumbling behind her. We finished the last couple of miles in this state before finding an “active bear in the area” sign at the trailhead we had missed earlier, glad we never ran into that bear on our sleep-deprived hike in!
Though I was slightly bummed to turn around before summiting, I was ultimately happy with the decision as it seemed safest. Regardless of the summit, I had my longest day in the mountains yet and really proved my mental and physical endurance. I also know what I need to do to be successful next year. All of that is a win in my eyes!
Takeaways for the next attempt:
I shouldn’t expect my first few miles to be my fastest. At least not in the dark when I have a midnight start.
Route finding is significantly harder on less than an hour of sleep when I am already 12+ miles in.
My body doesn’t want any kind of real food anywhere near it when I am in such a long-sustained effort. Taco Bell, candy, and energy gels will fuel all future endeavors of this sort.
I need more scrambling experience so I can feel more confident when we (inevitably) attempt this again next year.
I also need a few more solid training runs before our attempt next year so I can arrive at the climb with a little more gas in the tank. My mental endurance was there but my physical endurance was definitely lacking a bit.
