1978 had been a good year that included a first ascent of Robertson Peak with DM, Mt. Baker, Wedge Mtn. (the highest in Garibaldi Park), Kwoiek Needle, and Mt. Northgraves (a steep conglomerate peak north of Chilliwack Lake). However, our beat down on Glacier Peak bothered me big time. In the spring of 1979 DM and Offwidth weren’t around so I began planning a return to Glacier Peak with Ken F. and a new climber Phil V. (who would save my wife’s life on Mt. Rogers two years later). In the last year we started to change our approach to climbing, preferring to try peaks as day climbs. This was started by DM who always reminded me that I would “curse every ounce” in my overnight pack. So we began to plan for a day assault on Glacier Peak with an overnight camp at Kennedy Hot Spring.
Glacier Peak would have a 8300 ft elevation gain from the parking lot and only gained 1800 ft the first 8 1/2 miles of trail. With such a large physical commitment we had to choose a tough day climb to test our readiness. We decided on Silvertip, an 8500 ft peak in the Skagit Valley. It is the highest peak in the B.C. part of the Cascades South & east of the Fraser River. It had a 6600 ft elevation gain with no trail starting from a gravel pit on the Skagit road. Ken, Phil, and I did our climb on June 10/79 in beautiful weather. The only drawback was I picked up a tick and we had to stop to dig it out. It took us 7 1/2 hours to the top. Had fantastic views of the Skagit Valley, Hope Slide, Silver Lake Peaks, Mt. Hozameen, etc. We were tired lads when we got down but we knew we were ready.
Silver Lake Peaks with Spickard centre L & Redoubt centre R
Skagit Valley with Hozomeen centre & Jack Mtn R
The next weekend was a rainout so we planned our Glacier Peak ascent for June 23/79. To make sure of a good start we drove down to the trailhead on Friday night, arriving close to midnight. We slept in the vehicles (comfy!) and were up about 5 am and left the parking lot at 6 am arriving at Kennedy Hot Spring at 8 am. We spent an hour setting up camp and having a bite to eat. Then we were off. Ken’s wife Bev and my wife Sonja came with us along with a couple of guys from the cross country ski club I was in. There were several more club members coming but they thought we were a little too radical and wanted to camp at the bottom of the climbers trail at 4100 ft. and do the ascent Sunday.
We reached the climbers trail and up we went arriving at tree line at 5500’ and onto the snow slopes leading to the peak. Our tourist contingent decided to drop out at about 7000’ (a respectable 4700’ above the parking lot) and quite close to where we bivi’d the year before. The girls headed back down as we carried on up the snow slopes of the Sitkum Glacier.
The route was easy with some steeper sections in soft wet snow and talus slopes as we cut across from South to North and worked our way up beside Sitkum Spire, a spectacular piece of rock protruding from the glacier. The last ski club member had left us below at about 9000’.
7000’ turning back spot near where we bivi’d the year before
Here we are about 500’ below the summit.
Sitkum Spire
By the time we got to the spot in the upper right photo we only had 500’ left to gain to the summit but it was the longest 500’ of my life. A combination of altitude, lack of sleep and having gained almost 8000’ at that point made it a very slow go with frequent rest stops. At last the summit was in sight and I staggered to the top at 6:30 pm taking the northern snow slopes. It was very cold on top but with fantastic views in all directions.
Looking N fr summit with the Rabbit Ears in the right centre.
Mt Rainier in the distance
Looking NE from summit
It was now 6:45 and time to leave. Even though the day was long we had a long way down to the Hot Spring (7300’ vertical). Once we dropped below Sitkum Spire we discovered that we had some good sliding so we put on the rain pants and away we went. One memorable slide dropped us 1300’ in a couple of minutes. It was a great way to save those tired legs. We got back to the climbers trail and now we had to walk! When we got to the bottom at the base of Sitkum ridge we passed the camp of the ski club climbers and wished them well on their climb tomorrow. It was time to go as the sun had set and we still had 3 1/2 miles to go. At last, at dusk we could see the Hot Spring below and were soon back in camp. Within 15 minutes we were soaking our tired bones in the warm water, man did it feel good!
We got up the next morning with the secure knowledge that we only had 5 miles left to get back to the vehicles. We also got a good view back up to the peak and we could plainly see our slide tracks. We hung around until about noon after another soak and then packed up for a leisurely hike out. We then headed home arriving about dinner time. It was the end of a mighty successful weekend. Ironically, the ski club members that did the climb Sunday had a difficult time and didn’t arrive home until about 1 am and had to go to work the next morning. It just showed that having an aggressive approach sometimes pays off big time.
You can our slide tracks on the right side
Soaking on Sunday morning-Phil standing on left & Sonja on right