I'm not a mountaineer...but I play one on TV. My latest episode had me trapsing up Mt. Ruth en route to Camp Schurman, toying with the idea of attempting the summit. (What was I thinking?) I write this report for those of you (like me) who enjoy hiking, but with an occasional curiosity to go higher and urge to do more. This route is challenging, to say the least. I actually accompanied some friends to Camp Schurman who were attempting the summit. But, I loaded my pack with the others and felt like I had what it took in case the team *wanted* to take me along. So here's the scoop for those inquiring minds. The normal route to Camp Schurman is via the Inter Glacier, but undesirable conditions warranted an alternate route over Mt. Ruth and Steamboat Prow. The initial 3.5 miles or so are easy enough, straight-forward and the trail is in fantastic shape. Glacier Basin is very nice with flowery meadows and a small tarn with Inter Creek rushing right through the middle of the basin. After this pleasant ""walk in the park"", the official maintained park trail ends and the climbing route begins. The route painfully turns straight up with very poor footing, with loose sandy, ashy stuff and slatey rock. After a nice slog up, the trail ""levels off"" on the ridge line that leads up Ruth. Great views of the Emmons Glacier, Little Tahoma and Burroughs Mtn. are breathtaking. From here the trail works steadily up and over Ruth via scree and a couple of snow fields. Once on top of Ruth (lots of huffing and puffing), the path drops quickly down to a saddle between Ruth and Steamboat Prow. Views (as you can imagine) are quite expansive--Mt. Stuart, Glacier Peak, Mt. Baker and myriad peaks in between. Needless to say, Rainier is in your face with the heavily-crevassed Emmons Glacier drawing lots of attention. Be prepared coming down Ruth to step around a nice little exposure if you intend to carry on. With a heavy pack, it takes some grace and care. Once past, the trail briefly levels off and soon picks back up with the climb up Steamboat. It's relentless and on a nice summer day, is hot, hot, hot--no water, no shade, lots of exposed ridge. Usually a nice breeze keeps things cool enough. After the dance up boulders and more loose rock, the trail then skirts around to the left of the Prow to emerge on top of a gully with extremely loose rock. At this point, Camp Schurman comes into view and is just a few more steps away.....or, uh, slips. This little slope is VERY challenging with a loaded pack, or without for that matter. Footing is really bad. It's like walking on marbles with few solid hand-holds. If you slip, you go for a bouncy ride down the rock face to hit the Winthrop Glacier below. Not fun. Lots of caution is needed here, to say the least. Once down the trickiest part, you hit a well-beaten path over to camp. So, bottom line is 5,000 ft. of elevation gain and a little over 6 miles one way to camp, with White River Campground as the starting point. I hike and pack quite a bit and this hike certainly challenged me. Poles are a must! Gaiters to help keep out loose pebbles and soil are a good idea. LOTS of water is also recommended. I *suppose* the strongest of hikers could do this hike (roundtrip) in one day, but it takes a lot of work. Take the ten essentials, but go as lightly as possible to make the trip easier. The rewards are BIG--Rainier up close and personal, glaciers all around, Little Tahoma, expansive views east and a very unique outpost in Mt. Rainier National Park. If you make it to Schurman, consider taking some fresh berries or something special to the climbing rangers stationed at the hut. They do a stellar job of rescuing those in trouble, keeping the place tidy and providing a welcoming face in an often inhospitable location. The trip up to Camp Schurman is definitely not for the faint of heart. Oh, for those of you still wondering...I hung out at camp a couple of days soaking up the high life and sunsets over Puget Sound Country. I didn't attempt the summit this trip, but be sure and tune in next time when...

Little Tahoma turned out to be the star of the show for this scramble of Mt. Ruth. Big Tahoma was far to busy shielding us from much of the stormy weather that was blasting the puget sound lowlands to make more than a fleeting appearance. This is a real workout, but well worth the effort on a good day. Clocks at 10 miles and 4500' of gain with much of the elevation coming in the last two miles. The Glacier Basin Trial is for the most part snow free. Where there was snow on the trail it was usually less than 1' deep. Snow begins in ernest above 5000' (+ or -), and varies from a trace to 3' depending on aspect. Two smallish wet sluff's were noted coming off the steeper walls of the basin above 6000'. Strong group and a great day to be in the hills.

We left the Glacier Basin trailhead about 9am. It was wonderfully cool hiking in the 3 miles. We boulder hopped across three creek branches and headed for the snow slopes leading to the east ridge of Mt Ruth (8690'). The snow was well consolidated and soon we were on the ridge leading to the summit. The last 800' or so seemed like a grunt, but with such views we didn't care. Time to the summit was about 4 3/4 hours, with a long summit sit, and about 2 hr, 20 min down (using a 2500' glissade to speed things along). Round trip 10 miles, 4500', and 8.5 hr round trip. Super snow hike.

Ever since a mid June camping weekend in '98 I have been curious about the Interglacier, Camp Schurman and Mt Ruth. The plan was to climb Mt Ruth, traverse over to Steamboat Prow and come back down the interglacier. We decided to ease the approach to Mt Ruth and avoid the crowds by taking the Glacier Moraine trail and following the ridge to the final ascent area of Mt Ruth. This worked pretty well. After the ""Maintained Trail Ends Here"" sign, it's tricky to stay on the trail. There is a trail, and it's not maintained light blowdown and some vague areas. When we hit snow, we lost the trail and used the map and compass. It took some doing, but we got to the ridge, had lunch and continued on. Great views of the Emmons Glacier and Mt Tahoma. The final approach is very steep snow and was soft enough to be slippery and hard enough to require kicked steps. Two skiiers and one hiker coming down. We had a second lunch on the summit and watched hikers, skiiers and climbers come up the interglacier. It would be easy and safe to hike over to Steamboat Prow and the Interglacier, but it was later than we wanted and Mt Ruth is steeper, so we glissaded down to the basin (2500'or so) and hiked out. I would only do this when there's snow. I don't know if there's a trail. You need to be very sure of your runout on the glissade, as there are cliffs on the N side. Follow the ridge along the Glacier until you can see clear to the basin.