"Hike up with AK, snow halfway up the basin and on. Really enjoyed the quality of the snow up and down as we were lucky with the weather as the overcast morning kept the snow cool and easier to traverse. It got sunny, slushy, and hot as we hiked out. Crampons, helmet, and ice axe were necessary. Great spot. Lots of fun glissading! A must do in the area imo. 10/10" — zachmitch • Jun 22, 2024

"Benson and I headed up to Vesper today for our first attempt and for me besides Mount Pilchuck, the first peak on the Mountain Loop Highway. We met the people who wrote the prior two trip reports today (we were slow and hiked out in the dark) NodR and his climbing partner on the way down and Comma - passed us up and down. How embarrassing, or more a compliment to your fitness and skill on the trail. Both NodR's and Comma's trip reports are very comprehensive and accurate. Snow level was about 4000 feet on the way up and 3400 on the way down. I estimate up to 6 inches of new snow from the past few days. Maybe 2-4 new inches today. Very dry and powdery - Too much snow to grip the granite on the final summit push. Too fluffy for spikes and axe. Not ideal. We followed someone's tracks up the final 500 feet of the summit. This was not ideal as they ambled a bit, but avoided some exposure. This section was no joke in these conditions. There was frozen water ice on much of the granite slabs, covered in 6 inches of fluffy, unstable snow. I had to ice axe arrest a couple of times, as with or without crampons, you either lost purchase or risked punching through the snow into a rock..." — markhadland • Nov 7, 2020

"From the boys' WTA report: We are the Mountain Goats, Nathan (14) and Terrence (12), and we spent Father's Day with our dad climbing Vesper Peak. We had been wanting to do this one for awhile and wanted to go before too much snow melted. The South Fork of The Stillaguamish is raging! Thanks to a couple of slippery logs put across it's not too bad, but definitely a bit of a challenge getting over. The open area & switchbacks afterwards were already toasty hot at 8:30 in the morning and we were happy to get back into the trees right before Wirtz Basin. Fortunately, there is still a good amount of snow in the basin and the valley, which we prefer to trying to scramble over the rocks and boulders of late summer. Headlee Pass is steep and it was a bit slippery (we decided to put on our spikes), but with so much snow we were just able to go straight up. And since there were several people ahead of us, we did have some steps to follow. After the pass, there are only a couple of spots where the trail and boulders poke through the snow. In a couple more weeks it will be slower going through here with holes opening up, but today it was easy going. The lake is nearly completely f..." — BryHong8 • Jun 17, 2018

"The climb up Vesper Peak today demonstrated several of the potential challenges for late winter/early spring hiking. Swollen rivers, icy conditions, snow falling, low visibility and losing the trail. The mud starting out on the Sunrise trail reminded us of spring. The Stillaguamish was running faster and deeper than it was in January, the last time we came up. The only two people we saw today were up river trying to find an easier crossing, but they didn't. We stuck to the trail, and dropped several large rocks in to make the crossing a little less wet. Thanks to the people behind us who dropped in several more rocks, making the crossing much easier for us coming back. The valley is almost entirely snow-free and it's easy to follow the trail. If you go up in the next few weeks, don't make the mistake that we did, which was coming out of the last patch of trees and heading straight to the right up what we thought was the gully up to Headlee Pass. With the snow still present on the west side of the valley, that gully looked a lot like the normal trail, and we climbed all the way to the top before realizing that we had cut over too soon. If there is a way to take that route and then d..." — BryHong8 • Mar 22, 2015

"A classic early March climb that ended with calling in a helicopter... We arrived at the trailhead around 8am and there was 1 car in the parking lot. Impressive start for that guy, we thought. Brought my poles just in case for the South Fork Stillaguamish River crossing... they were totally unneeded -- so little water. After stashing poles behind a tree on the other side, we started the climb to Headlee Pass. Hit patches of ice and snow on the trail before a 100% snow climb up the broad gully to the pass. Very firm snow in the lower gully; crampons & ice ax required (or incredibly nice to have). Took crampons off at top of pass and put them back on at the base of Vesper Lake. From here, it was a straight-forward snow ramp all the way to the summit with no visible signs of avy activity. Summit views from Vesper are incredible. Around 360 degrees clockwise, we could pick out downtown Seattle, the Brothers/Olympics, nearby Pilchuk, Baker, Shuksan, North Cascades, Glacier Peak, Stuart, Daniel, Adams, and Rainier. Looking straight down the north face of Vesper is a rush and made me think of Alaskan extreme skiing. Prime glissading conditions on the way back down to the lake... we..." — scott • Mar 10, 2015

"I finally got a chance to write up a report of my recent return to the Mountain Loop Highway. Vesper Peak was an ideal location for a last minute weekday hike. The trail was nearly snow free up to about 100 feet below Headlee Pass, and for most of the traverse over to Lake Elan. Vesper had 2-3 feet of snow above the lake and a well beaten path broken in by at least 5 pairs of snowshoes since Friday. I reached the summit at 10 am without snowshoes, and experienced only minor post-holing, mostly on the way down. Sperry peak appeared to have just a light dusting, most of which was caught by small vegetation. Both of the dogs did great on Vesper but Sperry seemed to have more scrambling than I wanted to drag them along for. This was Maverick's first serious hike since his knee surgery nearly six months ago, and all signs point to a 100% recovery. We saw about 20 people and a few dogs on the way out. We hit the trail at 7 a.m. as the sun began to rise. Alpenglow struck the top of Sperry Peak as we crossed the North ridge of Morning Star. Fall colors were pushing through all of the green in the South Fork Stillaguamish River Valley. I noticed one of the mine entrances described in se..." — Jeb • Oct 5, 2013

"Didn't mind the rocky trail going up, but hated every bit of it when descending. :] Easy to lose the trail when you head up, but I had no issue at all coming down. Crossed one big snow field for the final push to the summit, but no snow on the actual summit. Gorgeous views (summit block is not good for sitting!) Only wish I had brought my ice axe for descending. It would've been an epic glissade for 1000 vertical feet! " — aimk13 • Aug 25, 2012