The objective was Mt. Fox via Fox glacier. We turned back during an attempted ascent of the south ridge. We were unable to find the "easy southwest slopes" of Fox's summit cone as described in the Rogers Pass Alpine Guide. At this point, I was pretty exhausted, it was late, rain was expected, and one of our team was back a Glacier Circle cabin with an injury from the approach. Regardless, this was one of my funnest days exploring mountains. Just getting to Twisted Rock was rewarding in so many ways.

The approach to Glacier Circle Cabin.
Despite the wet established trail to Perley Rock and the neve, it's worth starting the day early in case something goes wrong. We started later than planned, and then had to workout a situation with a team member who had heat exhaustion. Shortly after that member returned to the TH, we had another twist her knee. We assessed, and it seemed like she would be ok. With one member down, we reached the Illecillewat Neve mid-afternoon. Crossing the Illecillewat wasn't too bad, although you gain a lot of elevation. Uneven surfaces and heavy packs had us moving slower than we had anticipated. We arrived at the crest of Glacier Circle as the sun set and wild fire smoke rolled in. This was the crux of the entire trip. We had to route find our way down the cliffs in the dark, choking on smoke, and with an injured climber. There were 3 sections which required us to down climb and hand bomb our packs. We definitely had the option to bivvy and continue in the daylight, but we decided that as long as it felt safe to continue, we would plug away. The final slope before the marsh had lots of signs of a grizzly in the area, so that made out decision to carry on to the cabin. This had us zig zagging through the marsh as we attempted to keep our bearing. I kept telling the team we only had 1 more km to go. that was motivating at first, and comically aggravating after an hour with no charge in remaining distance. If you can get your hands on a summer gps track, it's worth having. I had one, and it helped keep us from getting completely lost in the dark.

Twisted Rock and Mt Fox attempt.
First day was a well needed rest day, so we decided to go after Fox the next day on Ken's birthday. We lost a little time in the morning as i took a while to wake up and get my sh!t together (sorry Ken!). We agreed that we may be able to save a little time with a direct route to gain the east ridge. We tried a line up a relatively laid back depression on the Northeast side of the ridge. That didn't work. We traversed and gained the ridge crest lower down, where we started to find tat and cairns, so we knew we were now on the right track. This involved some super fun (sometimes loose) 3rd/4th class scrambling. We roped up for one section that felt too sketchy to just go for it. Eventually we were at a plateau and could see Fox Glacier surrounded by amazing peaks, hanging glaciers, and a surrounding landscape that was just awe inspiring. Selwyn and Hasler and beautiful. Hasler is actually over 11,000'. I was pretty fatigued by this point, but Ken suggested we go for a walk on the glacier and see how far we could get. It didn't take long to reach the other side and transition to the base of Twisted Rock. Once gaining this highpoint of the col, we decided to give the south ridge a shot. I don't know if we were off route, but things got super loose and super exposed. The "easy" route was nowhere to be seen. If i had more energy, i am sure we would have found a way, but after only a few words, we decided to call it. Luckily getting back to the east ridge decent was quick. We started seeing up for rappels just as the rain started. It didn't take long to get off the ridge with about three 60m raps and some down climbing. We spent more time on rope management than anything.

There's a lot to this trip report. I'm including more then typical as it was hard to find much for beta or reports on Mt. Fox. Hopefully this helps anyone eager to go after it or other peaks in the area. The biggest take away is to be prepared. There's not much to aid with route finding, conditions change quickly, and this is super remote. And that's what made it such a great day out. Glacier Circle Cabin and the surrounding area is amazing and full of history. So it was with the effort to visit for that alone.