Ruth-Icy Traverese June 28-29, 2008 - 6/29/2008
Trip: Ruth-Icy Traverese June 28-29, 2008 -
Date: 6/29/2008
Trip Report:Brian, Morgan and I headed up to the North Cascades this weekend to do the Ruth-Icy traverse and found great conditions and loads of great views.
Contrary to reports from prior weeks, the road to the Hannegan Pass trailhead is now open all the way to the trailhead as the major ruts are gone. There is one very rutted spot just past the Goat Mountain TH but passable in a Subaru, SUV etc. There were several spots with major water running over the road on our way out Sunday, however, raising the possibility of some road damage that may change things from what we found.
After a few short sections of snow after the trailhead, the trail is largely snow free until the steep climb starts to Hannegan Pass. Lots of water flowing in all the gulleys, some of which have firm snow in them. The trail was washed out in one or two gulleys but no major problems crossing any of them. Continuous snow is found from the time you start climbing to the pass, all the way to the summit. Boundary camp is still snow-covered. Travel from the pass to the summit of Ruth was easy on soft snow with a firm base. Great views of Shuksan and Baker along the way. Total time from the trailhead to the summit was about 4.5 hours including a few long breaks along the way.
After an hour on the summit taking in the great views, we headed down to set up camp. We followed the ridge that runs to the south off the summit of Ruth and opted to camp on the plateau below and to the right of the ridge (shown below) Plenty of room in there for multiple groups and still have space to themselves. No running water up there yet.
The evening was calm and warm, with some great views of the surrounding peaks, including Icy in the waning light.
The next morning, we awoke to nice views of Shuksan in the morning light and the moon over camp.
We left camp at just after 6AM, an hour after a group of 6 from the Mountaineers. T-shirt weather from the time we left camp. Nothing had frozen overnight and we found no need for crampons. From camp, we followed the rocky slope that descends from the plateau. We found a cairn to the left that marked the entry point to the rocky descent. In the photo below, it's the C-shaped band of rock that comes down from just to the right of the low point on the saddle and runs between two patches of snow.. This section was a mix of Class 2 and Class 3 scrambling with lots of loose rock before we got on snow that, with the exception of one short section on dirt and rock, we were able to follow down to the flatter slopes below from where we headed over to the saddle between Ruth and Icy. Travel on the way to the saddle was pretty fast on the soft snow with a firm base.
At the saddle, we roped up. The route stays to the right of the ridge separating the Spillway and Icy Glaciers. We took a gentle rising traverse up the left hand side of the Icy Glacier, cutting in front of the saddle and heading for the shoulder to the right of the summit prominences. There were a few crevasses opening up low down on the glacier but nothing that we could see on the higher route we followed.
From the shoulder to the base of the summit climb to the Northwest peak took only 5 minutes of unroped travel. The route to the summit follows the gulley shown in the photo below. From the top of the gulley, you head left to the summit of the northwest peak which is just a few feet higher than the northeast peak. The gulley up to the summit was Class 2 at the very bottom but became a mix of Class 3 and 4 the rest of the way with perhaps a short section of very low Class 5.
We hit the top about 2 hrs, 15 minutes after leaving camp, spending an hour while we waited for the Mountaineers group to come up. Once they were up, we headed back down the gulley. They had set up a handline for their ascent and they kindly let us use if for our descent which we did by descending with a handline (their group opted to rappel off, as did a pair that had climbed the peak the night before). This was nice to have as it's a fairly steep section and a fall would hurt.
From there, we headed back to camp, returning to camp about 5 hours after we had left in the morning. Packed up, headed back over the summit of Ruth and on down the trail, finding much more water on the trail on our way out than on our way in, thanks to the high temps. Total time from the summit down to the trailhead was about 3 hours, 15 minutes.
Gear Notes:Brought and used: axe, helmet, rope, harness
Brought and did not use: picket, crampons
Approach Notes:Road is open to Hannegan Pass Trailhead
Trail largely snowfree to base of climb to Hannegan Pass, continuous snow from that point onward
