Failed on Ruth
Washington, United States, North America

Failed on Ruth

Page Type Page Type: Trip Report
Date Date Climbed/Hiked: Oct 6, 2009
Activities Activities: Mountaineering
They were predicting a week of sunny weather at the beginning of October, so living in the NW I knew I had to take advantage of it. I had this great plan of soloing Ruth as a final bold capper on the season (not to mention I couldn't get anyone else to go). I did Ruth about the same time last year so I thought I could predict what the conditions would be like.

 
Down Valley
A few inches of new, dry, windblown snow makes the steep trail up from Hannegan Pass interesting. These conditions were the same last October.


As I rounded the know North of Ruth I looked on to a vastly more crevasses glacier than last year.

 
Crevassed Route
Previously the route up the ridge to the summit was crevasse free!


 
Large Crevasse
A close up of the large crevasse that ran transverse across the whole ridge of the glacier.


So as a prudent person traveling alone I stopped on the leeward side of the knob and lay in the sun for a couple of hours then trudged on home.

Hope the conditions are better or the company more numerous next time.

Images

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Comments

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mauri pelto

mauri pelto - Oct 10, 2009 7:54 am - Hasn't voted

path interrupted

Good choice. Because of the awesome amount of melt this summer the crevasses opened up more than usual. This crevasse blocking your route is not as impressive in the photograph as in reality, which makes the shot that much more memorable.

geosean

geosean - Oct 10, 2009 7:15 pm - Hasn't voted

Re: path interrupted

Hi there, did you go up Ruth resently to find this out our just speaking from experience? if you were up there is the route passable at all?

I'm a recent geology grad so I'm naturally interested in glaciers as well; could you surmise that all the Cascade glaciers are in the same sort of shape? (I havelt been on and this fall)

Travis_

Travis_ - Oct 18, 2009 1:25 am - Voted 10/10

wow

that is way more crevassed than when I climbed it, there were only 2 crevasses to be seen last year.. Good decision, better safe then sorry

Viewing: 1-3 of 3


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