Route Climbed: White Chuck/Gerdine/Cool Glacier Date Climbed: September 5-7, 2005
Fantastic mountain to climb! Remote area with few people. Perfect weather for climbing friend Nick and myself. Took three days, no one else on the mountain on summit day. It is about 30 miles round trip via N Fork Saulk trail.
What an incredible mountain. To emphasize how attractive it is, a friend of mine and I from Anchorage both flew down to climb it. And to think that we don't have enough mountains to climb in AK!
This route is very tame...just a long arduous hike. Well worth the effort and I would do it again in an instant. Unfortunately, our trip was cut short (we planned to hike out via the PCT heading north after the summit) by bad weather, but the time spent at Boulder Basin was most excellent. Mac and Cheese at the summit was nice as well!
Route Climbed: White Chuck Glacier / Disapointment Cleaver Date Climbed: July 14/15/16 1978
With Ann & Ken Winkes, Barb Richey and other SAC member, Tad. Long hike in to Glacier 1st day. Climbed up White Mountain on way in, great place for photos. Next day up Glacier to Cleaver, climbed directly up Cleaver and then on to summit. Fairly high winds at summit, did not hang around too long. Back to camp, good glissade down alongside Cleaver. White Chuck glacier seemed quite flat on way down. After leaving glacier members seperated somewhat on way to camp. Tad didn't show up at camp and after 1/2 hour we went searching for him. Tad was sound asleep on a boulder near the terminus of the glacier, we coaxed him back to camp before dark. Another long hike out the next day. Not too many flies, good weather.
Route Climbed: Sitkum Glacier Date Climbed: August 24, 2003
Absolutely beautiful day as can be seen from my photo submissions.
This is my second summit of G.P. After the first time, I vowed never to return again (the 10 mile approach in one day with BIG flies eating me up was not a very pleasant experience!) 3 years later, I was back again, this time the same 10 mile approach but NO flies.
Our 3 man rope team left boulder basin at 2:15 am and summitted at 8 am. The view from the summit of this mountain is one of the best!
Route Climbed: Sitkum Glacier Date Climbed: September 17, 2000
Beautiful fall day. We topped out of the clouds about 1000 feet above our camp in Boulder basin. The middle of the Sitkum glacier was icy but for the rest we did not need crampons.
Route Climbed: Sitkum Glacier Date Climbed: July 12 2003
Clear and cool on the way up, clouds moved in while on top but good views while they lasted. Approach is not as bad as it is hyped up to be but is definitely long (and quite steep at the end).
Route Climbed: Sitkum Glacier Date Climbed: September 21, 2003
Route was mostly bare ice, except for frozen remnants of recent snowfall near the summit. Crampons were absolutely necessary. I climbed via the standard ridge and traversed around the south side of the summit spires. Lots of ice chunks were showering off of the southern faces of the summit spires, and the final chute was ice turning into ice crust over powder, a little steep with some exposure. Descended northwest side of the west summit spire, which felt shorter, a little less exposed, and was free of icefall, but was steep and required crossing the bergshrund of the Scimitar Glacier.
Route Climbed: Disappoinment Peak Route Date Climbed: August 4, 2003
Two important things to know about this route - first, the White Chuck Glacier does not look anything like it appears on the maps. It has receeded substantially. Don't be fooled into going up the visible portion of the glacier, the proper route continues north, then climbs thru a narrow rocky gully to glacier gap. Second, the access to the Cool Glacier from Geraldine Glacier was difficult. Expect to climb over and through ice blocks. We didn't attempt this because we were not prepared.
Final note - observed a coyote on the upper Coll Glacier - don't know who was more surprised, him or us.
Route Climbed: Sitkum Ridge Date Climbed: July 6, 2003
Took a variation of Sitkum Ridge. Instead of following the lousy rocky ridge, we shot straight for the summit from the upper Sitkum Glacier. A bit steeper, but a bit funner. Also managed to find some 60+ degree hard snow on the north side of the summit. What a finish! Had the route to ourselves!
Route Climbed: Frostbite Ridge Date Climbed: July 6 2003
What a huge mountain! We hiked to Kennedy Hot Springs at 3300 ft. day 1. Though the net gain is only 1000 feet , there is probably 500 feet of up/down. Day 2 took us up the PCT to the climbers trail and up to our camp on (I guess) Kennedy ridge, around 6,600 feet. The weather was somewhat wet with the mountain socked in. Day 3 we arose to clear, warm weather! We started out at 5 a.m., parted the Rabbit Ears at 10:00, and stood on the summit just before noon. Most of the route was good cramponing snow. We set a few pickets in three places 1) right below ears on the way up, 2) after the notch on the other side of the ears, and 3) on the steep ramp right below the summit slope. This is a great route. Max snow angle was probably 50 degrees. No open crevasses, though my leg plunged into a hole that will be a small crevasse soon, right after the ears. No significant ice, but there is a small bergshrund trying to open on the final summit slope that actually held a screw pretty well. I would want some wands or at least steady GPS points in case of poor visibility though. The route winds around and goes up and down. In the few clouds we got on descent, it does get a little confusing. We used a GPS, and it was helpful on the way down. It took 5 hours to get down to camp. Day 4 we hiked the 10 miles out - 2.5 hours to KHS, then 2.5 hours to Trailhead. I'm glad we took 4 days to do this - it's a very enjoyable area and route if you don't have to take a beating as a beast of burden packing all that stuff for miles and miles.
Route Climbed: Sitkum Glacier Date Climbed: May 31, 2003
The approach was hellish, as snow did not start until 5700'in Boulder Basin, and the TH is at 2300'. Plus that is about 5-6 miles in before you can skin to base camp.
It rained on saturday night and crappy on sunday morning
I told everyone there was no way I was not going to go for the summit, since we had tracks from previous climbers, and we had 50 wands and only 3500 feet to go to the summit from base camp at the base of the Sitkum Glacier
But since it rained and was windy, tracks were hard to follow, and I went over a hidden crevasse on the lower sitkum that night when I went to yo-yo the slope but it turned out to be white out for my ski down, so it was a total waste.
Sunday morning we got up to Sitkum ridge and found our way up to the upper sitkum glacier, and around 9k it opened up to blue skies and we got above the clouds
From there on to the upper ridge it was perfect skinning, but on the ridge saddle is where I left my crampons, and of course that is where I started to boot it up, and only 200 feet up it got real icy, as the freezing level had dropped the night before as there were a few inches of freshiez. Scarpa Lasers do kick good steps evern in hard ice and rime though!
We traversed under the summit and everyone went right around to the summit and I went left since there were steps up the gulley, then went straight up that steep headwall to the summit plateau, and then up to the final summit.
The ski down was icy and Chuck and I followed previous tracks, and from the ridge saddle down to the lower ridgeline was some of the best skiing I have had this year. We skied past 2 rope teams of 3 (rope?). After the ridge it turned to mush since it had rained there and it was survival skiing from then on.
The ski down from base camp (7200) to our shoes sucked as well, but better than booting it. Our shoes were soaked that we had left there, and the hike out literally sucked since we had the skis on our packs with a full pack. I vow to never go back there again
Now alison says she wants to go next year...........
Route Climbed: Kennedy Hot Springs to Kennedy Glacier Date Climbed: Summer '97
This was the first 'mountain' my friends and I tried to climb. We made four attempts starting in '93 before reaching the summit in '97. Lack of mountaineering knowledge and poor weather conditions prevented the first three attempts. In '97, Ryan Hembree and I climbed the Kennedy Glacier route, then climbed two pitches of 70 snow and ice on the north face of the summit block as a variation.
Missed the "climbers trail" on the way in and ended up seeing more of the pacific crest trail then I wanted to on the 4th. We only needed to back track about half a mile to get back on track to Boulder Basin. It rained most of the day on the 4th but the 5th dawned a beautiful day. Tim and I left the tent at 6:45 and topped out at 1:45Pm. The last couple of hundred feet steepened to 55+, it was late enough in the day that we were able to kick good steps into the slope. We grabbed a few pics and started down for the car, 8 hours later we were at the trail head.
Pictures
Route Climbed: Sitkum Glacier Date Climbed: August 9, 1999
Dogged by lightning, rain, and climbers heading out as we headed in. Camped at Kennedy, and then the boulder basin. Woke at 1:30 am, and finally saw clear sky. 1999 was a record snow year. Snow started at 5000' and never let up. The lower glacier was more like a snow bowl. Saw only one crevasse, well off our route. Walked past Sitkum Spire, up the edge of the Scimtar Glacier (huge holes!), and circled left of the summit block. (most circle right) I was totally overwhelmed viewing hundreds of snow capped peaks. We were the only ones on the summit that whole day. Hogging the last wild volcano!! Almost seven hours from base camp, a little slow. It was brutal walking out eleven miles (bridge out) that same day. Got to bed at home 24 hours after waking up.
mandrake - Oct 31, 2005 7:40 pm
Route Climbed: Sitkum Glacier Date Climbed: Aug 22, 2003Bit cloudy and cold down below, but weather improved remarkably. Clear and tremendous views off of the summit.
Norman - Sep 9, 2005 10:46 am
Route Climbed: White Chuck/Gerdine/Cool Glacier Date Climbed: September 5-7, 2005Fantastic mountain to climb! Remote area with few people. Perfect weather for climbing friend Nick and myself. Took three days, no one else on the mountain on summit day. It is about 30 miles round trip via N Fork Saulk trail.
dicey - Sep 4, 2005 2:47 pm
Route Climbed: Frostbite ridge, Kennedy glacier Date Climbed: July 2001, 2002Haven't made the tipy top on either attempt...argh!
cgclimber - Jul 22, 2005 4:59 pm
Route Climbed: Sitkum Glacier Date Climbed: July 04, 2000Came back for seconds.
cgclimber - Jul 22, 2005 4:57 pm
Route Climbed: Sitkum Glacier Date Climbed: July 06, 1999My first time on a glacier.
Scott Dusek - May 30, 2005 9:17 pm
Route Climbed: Sitkum Date Climbed: June 21st 2000Dad and I took the plunge. Stayed on top, beautifull night.
Aaron Dyer - Mar 23, 2005 11:16 pm
Route Climbed: Frostbit Ridge Date Climbed: July 2003Weather turned us back two days in a row
cgailey - Aug 29, 2004 12:58 am
Route Climbed: Sitkum Date Climbed: July 2001What an incredible mountain. To emphasize how attractive it is, a friend of mine and I from Anchorage both flew down to climb it. And to think that we don't have enough mountains to climb in AK!
This route is very tame...just a long arduous hike. Well worth the effort and I would do it again in an instant. Unfortunately, our trip was cut short (we planned to hike out via the PCT heading north after the summit) by bad weather, but the time spent at Boulder Basin was most excellent. Mac and Cheese at the summit was nice as well!
Derek Franzen - Aug 16, 2004 10:48 am
Route Climbed: White Chuck Glacier / Disapointment Cleaver Date Climbed: July 14/15/16 1978With Ann & Ken Winkes, Barb Richey and other SAC member, Tad. Long hike in to Glacier 1st day. Climbed up White Mountain on way in, great place for photos. Next day up Glacier to Cleaver, climbed directly up Cleaver and then on to summit. Fairly high winds at summit, did not hang around too long. Back to camp, good glissade down alongside Cleaver. White Chuck glacier seemed quite flat on way down. After leaving glacier members seperated somewhat on way to camp. Tad didn't show up at camp and after 1/2 hour we went searching for him. Tad was sound asleep on a boulder near the terminus of the glacier, we coaxed him back to camp before dark. Another long hike out the next day. Not too many flies, good weather.
esugi - Mar 1, 2004 12:54 pm
Route Climbed: Sitkum Glacier Date Climbed: August 24, 2003Absolutely beautiful day as can be seen from my photo submissions.
This is my second summit of G.P. After the first time, I vowed never to return again (the 10 mile approach in one day with BIG flies eating me up was not a very pleasant experience!) 3 years later, I was back again, this time the same 10 mile approach but NO flies.
Our 3 man rope team left boulder basin at 2:15 am and summitted at 8 am. The view from the summit of this mountain is one of the best!
jverschuyl - Oct 24, 2003 10:04 am
Route Climbed: Sitkum Glacier Date Climbed: September 17, 2000Beautiful fall day. We topped out of the clouds about 1000 feet above our camp in Boulder basin. The middle of the Sitkum glacier was icy but for the rest we did not need crampons.
iandoten - Oct 1, 2003 6:30 pm
Route Climbed: Sitkum Glacier Date Climbed: July 12 2003Clear and cool on the way up, clouds moved in while on top but good views while they lasted. Approach is not as bad as it is hyped up to be but is definitely long (and quite steep at the end).
schitthaedt - Sep 22, 2003 1:05 pm
Route Climbed: Sitkum Glacier Date Climbed: September 21, 2003Route was mostly bare ice, except for frozen remnants of recent snowfall near the summit. Crampons were absolutely necessary. I climbed via the standard ridge and traversed around the south side of the summit spires. Lots of ice chunks were showering off of the southern faces of the summit spires, and the final chute was ice turning into ice crust over powder, a little steep with some exposure. Descended northwest side of the west summit spire, which felt shorter, a little less exposed, and was free of icefall, but was steep and required crossing the bergshrund of the Scimitar Glacier.
Paul Morgan - Aug 7, 2003 5:08 pm
Route Climbed: Disappoinment Peak Route Date Climbed: August 4, 2003Two important things to know about this route - first, the White Chuck Glacier does not look anything like it appears on the maps. It has receeded substantially. Don't be fooled into going up the visible portion of the glacier, the proper route continues north, then climbs thru a narrow rocky gully to glacier gap. Second, the access to the Cool Glacier from Geraldine Glacier was difficult. Expect to climb over and through ice blocks. We didn't attempt this because we were not prepared.
Final note - observed a coyote on the upper Coll Glacier - don't know who was more surprised, him or us.
lkrancus - Jul 15, 2003 9:09 pm
Route Climbed: Sitkum Ridge Date Climbed: July 6, 2003Took a variation of Sitkum Ridge. Instead of following the lousy rocky ridge, we shot straight for the summit from the upper Sitkum Glacier. A bit steeper, but a bit funner. Also managed to find some 60+ degree hard snow on the north side of the summit. What a finish! Had the route to ourselves!
igneousio - Jul 9, 2003 10:13 am
Route Climbed: Frostbite Ridge Date Climbed: July 6 2003What a huge mountain! We hiked to Kennedy Hot Springs at 3300 ft. day 1. Though the net gain is only 1000 feet , there is probably 500 feet of up/down. Day 2 took us up the PCT to the climbers trail and up to our camp on (I guess) Kennedy ridge, around 6,600 feet. The weather was somewhat wet with the mountain socked in. Day 3 we arose to clear, warm weather! We started out at 5 a.m., parted the Rabbit Ears at 10:00, and stood on the summit just before noon. Most of the route was good cramponing snow. We set a few pickets in three places 1) right below ears on the way up, 2) after the notch on the other side of the ears, and 3) on the steep ramp right below the summit slope. This is a great route. Max snow angle was probably 50 degrees. No open crevasses, though my leg plunged into a hole that will be a small crevasse soon, right after the ears. No significant ice, but there is a small bergshrund trying to open on the final summit slope that actually held a screw pretty well. I would want some wands or at least steady GPS points in case of poor visibility though. The route winds around and goes up and down. In the few clouds we got on descent, it does get a little confusing. We used a GPS, and it was helpful on the way down. It took 5 hours to get down to camp. Day 4 we hiked the 10 miles out - 2.5 hours to KHS, then 2.5 hours to Trailhead. I'm glad we took 4 days to do this - it's a very enjoyable area and route if you don't have to take a beating as a beast of burden packing all that stuff for miles and miles.
scot'teryx - Jun 2, 2003 5:09 pm
Route Climbed: Sitkum Glacier Date Climbed: May 31, 2003The approach was hellish, as snow did not start until 5700'in Boulder Basin, and the TH is at 2300'. Plus that is about 5-6 miles in before you can skin to base camp.
It rained on saturday night and crappy on sunday morning
I told everyone there was no way I was not going to go for the summit, since we had tracks from previous climbers, and we had 50 wands and only 3500 feet to go to the summit from base camp at the base of the Sitkum Glacier
But since it rained and was windy, tracks were hard to follow, and I went over a hidden crevasse on the lower sitkum that night when I went to yo-yo the slope but it turned out to be white out for my ski down, so it was a total waste.
Sunday morning we got up to Sitkum ridge and found our way up to the upper sitkum glacier, and around 9k it opened up to blue skies and we got above the clouds
From there on to the upper ridge it was perfect skinning, but on the ridge saddle is where I left my crampons, and of course that is where I started to boot it up, and only 200 feet up it got real icy, as the freezing level had dropped the night before as there were a few inches of freshiez. Scarpa Lasers do kick good steps evern in hard ice and rime though!
We traversed under the summit and everyone went right around to the summit and I went left since there were steps up the gulley, then went straight up that steep headwall to the summit plateau, and then up to the final summit.
The ski down was icy and Chuck and I followed previous tracks, and from the ridge saddle down to the lower ridgeline was some of the best skiing I have had this year. We skied past 2 rope teams of 3 (rope?). After the ridge it turned to mush since it had rained there and it was survival skiing from then on.
The ski down from base camp (7200) to our shoes sucked as well, but better than booting it. Our shoes were soaked that we had left there, and the hike out literally sucked since we had the skis on our packs with a full pack. I vow to never go back there again
Now alison says she wants to go next year...........
Our times were:
TH to Base camp: 5 hours
BC to Summit: 3 hours
Summit to BC: 23 minutes
BC to TH: 4 hours
Joe Hanssen - Jul 29, 2002 10:15 am
Route Climbed: Kennedy Hot Springs to Kennedy Glacier Date Climbed: Summer '97This was the first 'mountain' my friends and I tried to climb. We made four attempts starting in '93 before reaching the summit in '97. Lack of mountaineering knowledge and poor weather conditions prevented the first three attempts. In '97, Ryan Hembree and I climbed the Kennedy Glacier route, then climbed two pitches of 70 snow and ice on the north face of the summit block as a variation.
jasonconnell - Jul 10, 2002 1:24 pm
Route Climbed: Sitkum Date Climbed: July 4-5 2002Missed the "climbers trail" on the way in and ended up seeing more of the pacific crest trail then I wanted to on the 4th. We only needed to back track about half a mile to get back on track to Boulder Basin. It rained most of the day on the 4th but the 5th dawned a beautiful day. Tim and I left the tent at 6:45 and topped out at 1:45Pm. The last couple of hundred feet steepened to 55+, it was late enough in the day that we were able to kick good steps into the slope. We grabbed a few pics and started down for the car, 8 hours later we were at the trail head.
Pictures
magellan - Jun 28, 2002 10:42 pm
Route Climbed: Sitkum Glacier Date Climbed: August 9, 1999Dogged by lightning, rain, and climbers heading out as we headed in. Camped at Kennedy, and then the boulder basin. Woke at 1:30 am, and finally saw clear sky. 1999 was a record snow year. Snow started at 5000' and never let up. The lower glacier was more like a snow bowl. Saw only one crevasse, well off our route. Walked past Sitkum Spire, up the edge of the Scimtar Glacier (huge holes!), and circled left of the summit block. (most circle right) I was totally overwhelmed viewing hundreds of snow capped peaks. We were the only ones on the summit that whole day. Hogging the last wild volcano!! Almost seven hours from base camp, a little slow. It was brutal walking out eleven miles (bridge out) that same day. Got to bed at home 24 hours after waking up.