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6 hr 45 min to summit
13 hr 0 min total
Left Spokane the day before at 2PM and cruised into Cold Springs around 8:30PM. It was a Tuesday so much fewer people than the trip reports that I’ve read before…maybe 15 cars. The next morning I started on the trail around 6AM, wishing I’d woken up earlier. The ascent was spectacular. 5mph winds, no clouds, 40ish degrees. The only downside to the elements was the haze from the British Columbia fires. I never got a glimpse of Hood or MSH, and only a peak of Rainier (once I summited). I knew it was going to be warmer so I decided to go without ice axe (trekking poles only) figuring if anything I’d be postholing because of warm weather. I did bring and use crampons, which would say are quite nice on the final push up false summit. The most difficult part was the final hump getting up to the false summit.
Once at Piker’s I met some really nice people out from Baltimore who were meeting their son in Seattle afterward from a cross-country bike trip (He was in the midst of riding coast-to-coast, east-to-west). From there the peak is less than a 1000 feet up, so we all ascended up together-ish. Up to the summit in about 7 hours. We ran into another group at the summit out of the Tri-Cities area. They shared some beer and we all exchanged taking photos of each other and talked for a bit. The Tri-Cities guys were quite experienced (one having been up 15 times) and allowed me to descend with them through the glissading portion. Very good people and was happy to have their assistance. 2000-3000ft in 30 minutes. Rocks were beginning to expose in two places and you see it coming, but for the most part it was perfect. I used my collapsed trekking pole as a brake and it worked fine. Other weather times situations will require an ice axe. Once near Lunch Counter I split from the group of guys since they were stopping to rest and eat, also I didn't want to overstay my welcome.
I went down southwest of the proper trail where no other people were. Thankfully it was a Wednesday. Soon I was in a steep boulder field and had at least 1000-1500ft of class 3 (and even moments of class 4) scrambling to get down and doing my best not to kick any loose rocks down. I intersected the “Round the Mountain” trail. Thinking that I needed to continue west, I headed the wrong direction for about a half hour . Once I realized I would soon intersect the Short Horn trail, I turned around and hiked the remaining correct trails back to camp. Total time was 13 hours. Had I not taken the poor descent it should have been 10 hours. Lessons learned.