Almost the Last Three

Did summiting Denali back in 2003 subconsciously set this somewhat crazy adventure into gear? I’ll never know but what I was hoping for is that this would be the end, the finale, the completion, the conclusion, whatever… of bagging the highest point in all 50 of the US states. Unfortunately due to a typically nervous wife this didn’t turn out entirely as hoped. I should have known better!

These were all big boys, at least for the United States – with the Wyoming and Washington summits often spoken about in  the same sentence as the toughest. Maybe its not the best idea to leave the potentially most difficult to last!

Oregon – Mt Hood
Elevation: 11,239′ / 3426m ● Summited: 6/7/25 at 6h59 ● Route: Up/ Down: South Side – Hogsback/ Old Chute – Mt Hood National Forest

Probably the easiest of the 3 remaining summits and the one that gave me the most concern. Early July is not an ideal time nowadays to be marching up a big pile of rocks with potentially little snow holding all the rocks together and above zero temperatures! The closer our scheduled July 6th summit day came the more concerned I became, especially when the Mount Hood climbing rangers put out their final update on July 3rd stating that they are not recommending anyone going for the summit this season – far too much potential for rock fall 🙁 Now if I could keep that update from Andreas eyes we might still have a chance!

The Sunday morning 12:30am alarm call came, we quickly ate breakfast and left our Airbnb for the 50 minute drive to Timberline Lodge and ski resort at 1740m (the resort is the only one in the US to be skiable for 10 months of the year). The parking lot seemed busy but there was no one around and we could see no lights heading up the mountain – maybe we are the only idiots!

The trail was pretty obvious and went from dirt to piste where we stopped to put on crampons – the pisteurs were out and it kind of felt like we were trespassing on the newly groomed ski runs. It wasn’t long before we passed the Silcox hut at 2133m followed almost 500 vertical metres later by the upper lift station at 2603m. From here on up we’d be following a hopefully obvious boot pack. We continued easily up the Palmer snowfield, sometimes following a skin track and sometimes following foot prints, all the time heading up towards Crater Rock. We climbed above Triangular Moraine and followed comfortable ground to the east side of Crater Rock, passing above the sulphur spewing Devil’s Kitchen at 3170m.

We had made it up to the Hogsback, the climbing routes name. We roped up and continued ascending – this wasn’t the best place for a picnic with the pretty smelly odours seeping up out of the dormant volcano! From here we could see the summit ridge, the much-talked-about bergschrund and the Pearly Gates. It was pretty obvious we were going to be taking the late season option of the Old Chute which had more snow and passed well to the left of the very open bergschrund. We still hadn’t seen a soul so there was no fear in anyone sending missiles down on top of us, the biggest concern this late in the season.

A somewhat steep and obvious boot pack lead us up the Old Chute and pretty quickly topped out on a mostly snowless ridge – Andrea wasn’t going to like descending this! Traversing the ridge was longer than expected, following a meandering rocky path to a final section of snow and the top of Oregon. Now all we had to do was get back down.

After chomping down some energy bars and water we reversed the ridge, only this time we somehow dropped a bit far down the north side of the mountain (damn tracks). Although a short detour it made for a very steep bootpack to regain the ridge, a detour that terrified Andrea! She was brave and we were soon finished with the ridge, downclimbed the Old Chute and on easy terrain back towards civilization and the pistes.

Overall it was a perfect day with only 2 other people we saw later high on the mountain. The refreeze was perfect, no fear of rockfall, no crevasses, and a bluebird sky. It was a little weird to see all the skiers once we got to below Crater Rock though.

Mt Hood does sound like a great mountain to ski in the spring, so maybe one day…

Washington – Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,411′ / 4392m ● Summited: Bailed ● Route: Up/ Down: Disappointment Cleaver-Ingraham Glacier Direct (DC) route – Mt Rainier National Park

Moving on, we drove north via the Pacific coast, and after an overnight in Olympia checked into our airbnb in Elbe. This part of the US seems excessively outrageous for accommodation, especially anything along the road towards Mount Rainier National Park! At least we were now within an hour of Paradise where we needed to collect the necessary park and climbing permits – luckily our National Park “America the Beautiful” annual pass was still valid from the previous year.

Now, talking about permits, what a pain in the ass. A few months prior to our US trip I’d done a bit of research and found out that we were far too late to get the pick of the crop on the parks upper ‘climbing’ camping areas, and also that we each had to pay a $70 annual climbing fee – something that seems to increase substantially every year, and with it expiring on Dec 31 doesn’t even give you 12 months of usage. Then assuming we eventually get a campsite cancellation or a walk-up slot on recreation.gov we have to collect a team climbing permit in person, and show that all members have paid the annual climbing fee. Aside from the permits, there is a questionnaire to complete indicating the equipment you are expected to have, or may not have, with you!

Ooops. would the park rangers approve the climbing permit without us checking the box about carrying snow pickets? Luckily not, but they did loan us one; not one each but one in total. The ranger also mentioned that we should carry a gas cylinder, stove and sleeping bags on the summit bid, stating that any rescue could be up to a couple of days away – anyone would have thought we were in the jungles of Papua, not a few miles from Tacoma and civilisation! And without any further ado we were free to start our hike to Camp Muir.

The weather was socked in at 1645m Paradise but the rangers had radioed up to Muir and gave us good news of clear blue skies. With heavy packs we plodded up the steep paved walkway, slowly making our way from the tourist masses and into a familiar looking mountain environment. Pavement soon gave way to dirt trails, occasionally still snow covered, eventually leading us up to Panorama Point at 2074m – our view was still about as good as pea soup so after a refreshment break we continued on up.

Beyond Pebble Creek we reached continuous snow, the beginning of what would take us up the Muir snowfield, and on to the mountains most popular campsite at 3105m. The terrain never really changed again, just a fairly long slog with the occasional steeper section – a lack of ice not requiring the use of crampons, and this time of year any crevasses still had a good covering of snow. There were plenty of places for rest stops on bare rocky sections scattered throughout the snowfield.

We continued to make good time and waltzed into camp well under 5 hours after leaving Paradise (something good to be said for living and working out at altitude). It was already fairly busy so we wasted no time in finding a somewhat flat section to pitch our new Hilleberg bombproof tent – that’s if you erect it securely enough! We were comfortable, the sky was blue, there were volcanoes on the horizon, and we could see the route for later that night.

…and then just like that the trip became somewhat worthless!

In the late afternoon, as we had heard, out pops one of the rangers from the continually manned stone station building. After giving his briefing to the closest group of tent participants he came over to the 15 or so of us that were milling around and started on his spiel. It was mostly related to the weather forecast, route conditions, etc.. but then went into gear, in particular who was carrying pickets – for some reason his gaze was aimed at us, upon which we said that we had one picket between us. Ooops!

How the heck was the person that didn’t have the picket going to secure and rescue the one with the picket that had just fallen in a crevasse? “Use my ice axe”. Have you ever tried to rescue someone using your ice axe as a snow picket? “No, but we have done crevasse rescue techniques in the Alps”. Blah, blah, blah… This was becoming like a personal lecture, luckily for us ending when our tent and all the contents was about to become airborne. Andrea took all of his words in, then realised that I was probably going to fall in a crevasse with the picket and she would have no way of securing me, upon which we would both probably freeze to death and die. We had also polished off our small bottle of gas melting snow so couldn’t take any gas with us to the summit – I mean, talk about fear mongering!

Thirty minutes later after digesting everything Andrea turned over in the tent and said that she was an absolute nervous wreck. That was it, I couldn’t argue, so just turned off the midnight alarm call. We left camp at 5am heading away from the summit route!

Wyoming – Gannett Peak
Elevation: 13,804′ / 4207m ● Summited: 15/7/25 at 6h17 ● Route: Up/ Down: Dubois East Access Glacier Trail – Wind River Range

Many blogs and online articles state that Gannett Peak is in the top 3 or 4 for difficult state high points to summit. I know where I would put it now that it’s over and done with. We had reconnected with some American friends for this trip, almost knowing beforehand that we would be doing the majority of this trip as a couple, the sheer distance from the trailhead to summit being the main issue. I knew we could do the distance, it was whether Andrea could handle the exposure on summit day!

We had tossed around the different route options, one being 10 miles longer than the other but requiring a significant approach descent on summit day, and with that a greater ascent on an already long final day. One of our initial team was all for the longer distance, coming in at around 50 miles roundtrip with 3300m of elevation gain, so we opted for that after some back and forth – the trailhead was close to the small town of Dubois, and to the north of Gannett peak. Apparently both of the main routes offered stunning scenery, with lakes, river crossings, mountains, and grizzlies in abundance.

As per the US State Highpoint Guide…

• Trailhead: Start at Trail Lake Ranch
• Arrow Pass (3320m): Ascend through switchbacks, reaching a high point with expansive views
• Burro Flat and Phillips Lake: The trail descends into open plateaus, passing picturesque lakes
• Double Lake and Star Lake: Ideal camping spots for the first night, with scenic views and access to water
• Dinwoody Glacier Base: Establish high camp at around 3100m to 3300m
• Gooseneck Glacier: Navigate crevasses and ascend to the summit ridge
• Summit: The final push to the peak involves crossing a bergschrund and ascending steep snow slopes

…and then turn around and repeat in reverse!

Gannett Peak Day 1: Trail Lake Trailhead to Double Lake

Distance: 18.71km/ 11.63 miles, Ascent: 1066m, Moving Time: 5h12

After leaving the main road leading to Dubois we took a 9 mile dirt road to the trailhead. Arriving late this would be home for the night, also allowing for an early start and a full day of hiking. The loosely defined goal was to make it as far as Double Lake, a comfortable hike for Andrea and I but for Jeff, the self certified worlds best mountaineer!, it turned out to be a long day of suffering. At least Jose and Jack were coping!

The trail started easily enough with some comfortable switchbacks – the calm before the storm; and after 4 miles came a whole lot more. Around 31 covering more than 2 miles and 1200 feet of elevation gain. It was warm too! After numerous stops we were forced into a long refuel stop, a very long refuel stop, even though the bodily damage to a certain group member was long done. After what felt like an eternity we made it to Arrow pass and another long wait (the hope was that this would destroy our ‘liability’ and he would quit after the first day!). Chilling out at 11000 feet in the heat of the day was not our idea of fun.

From Arrow Pass the trail headed down for a lot longer than expected, passing through old growth forest, over streams, eventually bringing us to a pristine Double Lake. It would have been better to continue on for a few more switchbacks to Star Lake for the night but this would do – we had covered 11.5 miles, not too far off half way to the summit. This was the easy leg!

Jose and Jack were not too far behind, and on this occasion Jeff unexpectedly not far back either. He was battered; cuts all over from falls, an overloaded pack that his fake knees could barely tolerate, and a very exhausted look. I must admit watching him empty the most ridiculous items from his backpack and pathetically try to erect his tent was fun – who the heck brings a fold-away chair, a thick hardback book, and enough food to feed an army?

There was no fear he was going to start day 2, in fact little did we know that evening that Andrea and I would be the only two leaving the following day.

Gannett Peak Day 2: Double Lake to 3300m Camp

Distance: 27.14km/ 16.86 miles, Ascent: 746m, Moving Time: 6h59

An early morning goodbye left us with the best chance of knocking off Gannett – now we could push the pace and actually position ourselves for a summit bid early on day 3. Immediately we had a 400 foot climb to reach Star Lake before an 1100 foot descent, always remaining on the Glacier trail. After passing Honeymoon Lake we soon ran into Dinwoody Creek, for me this appeared to be much more than a creek with no easy way across –  we knew there was a new bridge further along the trail but this required almost an additional 1.5 miles!

On this outbound leg we accepted the additional distance, erring on the side of caution and staying dry. It was a shame to see the remnants of what was once an old bridge, something that was referred to in other blog posts, sitting almost on the trail – oh well. We continued following the creek, passing by Ink Wells trail and on towards Big Meadows. This area was all about waterfalls, meadows, and creeks seemingly running in all directions – beautiful scenery with the only thing missing… being bears. We hadn’t had a sniff of one!

The Ink Wells trail was another of the Gannet peak trails, one that runs through Indian tribal land and requires paid access. We continued on to our next port of call, Big Meadows, a high mountain pasture with epic views of the distant mountains – was one of them Gannett Peak? Dinwoody creek wasn’t going to leave us just yet, in fact it would taunt us with many smaller spurs requiring delicate balancing acts to cross, sometimes even just a shoes on, walk right on through crossing! The day was so nice, the mosquitoes were quiet, and we had completed 9 miles in 3 1/2 hours so we took the time to relax and enjoy the tranquility and views – things were going well, very well.

For the next 3-4 miles the trail continued on pretty flat, the creek still being our main reference point, before we reached Wilson Meadows and a terrain change. By now we were pretty beat up and expected the reported campsites to come into view at any time – they didn’t!  We were hovering around 10000 ft and had covered almost 13 miles with heavy packs. The campsites were obviously not going to jump out at us, apparently somewhat hidden in the massive jumble of rocks we would soon encounter – I guess the further we can make it into the labyrinth today the less we have to go not too many hours later!

After banging out another 3 miles and 1100 feet of elevation gain we found home. It had been a long day but it wasn’t too late in the day so a leisurely camp setup and dinner followed. We had also teamed up with another guy whose climbing friends had fallen behind having decided to head up a day later, giving us a good resource for summit day.

A midnight alarm call was not going to be a cheery affair.

Gannett Peak Day 3: 3300m Camp to Ink Wells Trailhead Intersection

Distance: 19.11km/ 11.87 miles, Ascent: 928m, Moving Time: 7h11

Not sure why we agreed to such a ridiculous start time, maybe the thought of arriving on the summit in conjunction with the rising sun. If so then it made sense! Bedtime came early, and so did breakfast – not sure we were ready for it but we definitely needed the carbs. The watch said 12:42am and just like that we were off, our third member as punctual as we were.

Various blogs had stated 6-8 hours for the summit, our expected time hopefully less than 6 if we were to see sunrise! We had no idea of the condition of the Gooseneck glacier either so we had a better chance of hard(er) snow in the wee hours. There was already at least one headlight ahead of us, bobbing around in the mass of boulders – it was hard going trying to find some level of a trail. Luckily our new friend had been this way once before which kind of helped, along with my preloaded route map on Gaia and the general direction of the summit which we had seen from camp.

We had had 2 perfect days of weather, something fairly unusual in these mountains, but this morning things were different – there were clouds, not pretty clouds but the ones that contain crappy weather. Our forecast from a couple days earlier also predicted this change would occur at some point! We continued on up, passing a couple of small glacial lakes, lots of moraine, boulders and snow covered terrain – the boulders were brutal, ensuring the 3 miles and 3000 feet were not going to come easily. After some time we ended up on a ridge, slightly better terrain and a view of what comes next – it was soon time for crampons as we traversed a snow field and headed up into a steep snowfilled couloir. This now felt just like Chamonix for me, not so much for Andrea!

We had skipped roping up and made relatively short work of the couloir – the reported bergschrund wasn’t noticeable which made life a bit easier. Once out of the couloir it was pretty much a rocky ridge with some exposure all the way to the summit at a pretty impressive 13810 feet (4210m). Unfortunately sunrise was mostly obscured by the ever approaching weather system – this wasn’t a place to be hanging around for a picnic!

The descent was quicker and even with Andrea double checking every step we made it back to camp within 9h45. It was time for food and drink replenishment, a quick rest, and tearing down of camp – there was still a long way to go for us to make it back to the trailhead by the end of the next day.

Notes: we did the summit hike in total darkness – a full moon would have helped with trail finding. Also, we didn’t see a soul at high camp until the random headlight some way ahead of us – no way to get any potential advice from guides. Finally, the weather looked gloomy with rain squalls in the distance but nothing reached us – this could have been a showstopper!

In the end we made it all the way back to the Ink Wells trailhead, a further 6.5 miles and 1300 feet of descent. As soon as camp was built the skies opened up – the timing was perfect! One more day to go in the Wyoming wilderness 🙂

Gannett Peak Day 4: Ink Wells Trailhead Intersection to Trail Lake Trailhead

Distance: 32.86km/ 20.42 miles, Ascent: 804m, Moving Time: 8h01

Today was daunting, there was no doubt about that – we had already pushed through 3 consecutive hikes and today was going to beat them all! With not too far from 20 miles to the trailhead (as per iPhone GPS after the Garmin went flat) we had to crack on. Leaving at 7.30 was definitely a bit late. The first 5 miles was somewhat flat, again with lots of water and epic views, before upping the suffering with the climb back up past Honeymoon Lake and on to Star Lake. We were now back up at over 10000 feet and a short distance from camp 1 at Double Lake.

We knew what was next and were from excited – the climb back up to Arrow Pass was another 1000 feet of up, the only saving grace being that from there to the finish line was all downhill, 3400 feet of it. Not sure if that was better or worse! I just wanted to get it over with but trying to stay behind Andrea was frustrating, in fact everything at this point was frustrating. Try to break it down into small segments I told myself – the 30+ switchbacks being next on the list.

Sometimes I wish I had no GPS watch or phone to keep looking at, the countdown seeming that much slower. Why couldn’t I just be like Andrea and put one foot in front of the other – we’ll get there when we get there! Eventually we did actually get there. Seeing the parking lot from a kilometre away was heaven, the thought of how we were going to get in touch with the others for a ride to wherever they were not so much!

Luckily our acquaintance was up for spending a night in Lander. Mission accomplished – that was a toughie, primarily for the distance covered with heavy packs.

I vowed that this would be my last trip to the US, ever. Now its either leaving one state highpoint behind or… not 🙁