Hiked to Glacier Basin Camp, crossed the Inter Fork, and followed a climber's trail up to the ridge and to Mt Ruth. Continued along the ridge past Camp Curtis to Steamboat Prow. Backtracked and descended the Inter Glacier back to the Glacier Basin Trail.

Road Conditions. Paved road and parking lot, restrooms with running water.

Trail Conditions. No issues with the Glacier Basin Trail up to Glacier Basin Camp, double-wide and smooth. Didn't take me long to find a spot where I could step across the Inter Fork (3 channels) without any acrobatics. Picked up a well-established climber's trail on the other side after a short bushwhack. Almost lost the trail just before it starts zig-zagging up to the top of the ridge, just had to step across a small stream. Steep with loose dirt and rocks, doesn't look like fun to descend... The trail remained easy to follow right up to the base of Mt Ruth, where there were a few patches of (soft) snow and multiple options... Didn't bother with traction here, followed the path of least resistance to the summit of Mt Ruth, approaching the short summit scramble (class 2) from the west. Continuing along the ridge, there was one brief section that had to be downclimbed and that required a class 3 move (good grips, but in a no-fall zone). Once at Camp Curtis, the climber's trail up to Steamboat Prow was easy enough to follow, just keep going up... Before heading down, I talked to several parties who had come up the Inter Glacier, and none reported any issues with crevasses. Glissading looked tempting, but instead I put on crampons and cautiously plunge-stepped all the way down to the Glacier Basin Trail. The Glacier Basin Trail past Glacier Basin Camp was pretty but not quite as smooth as it is once you get to Glacier Basin Camp.

Highlights. Close-up views of glaciers, and plentiful wildflowers and marmots.

Crowds. No queue when I reached the Sunrise entrance station one minute to seven. But all trailhead parking lots I passed were already full, including the one at White River Campground. Camps all looked busy. Didn't encounter anyone after crossing the White River until Camp Curtis. Slow trickle of parties heading up or down the Inter Glacier.

My first time up to Mount Ruth and Steamboat Prow. Definitely worth the effort but it's definitely...an effort. River crossing no problem on the day.

Got a timed permit on recreation.gov for the Sunrise corridor the evening before at 7pm. Plenty available for all time windows, $2.

Started the uphill hike around 7.40 in the morning, the trail to Glacier Basin camp is shaded by trees and smooth. I didn't quite know how high the Inner Fork was running (GAIA recent satellite imagery showed no snow) so I had brought trekking poles and a backup pair of socks. In the event, it was very easy to rock-hop across the two parts of the stream after following an established social trail down the river bank. It took a few checks against the route GPX to pick up the trail on the other side. Hint: if you're not walking right past the rusted out engine/pump, you're off track ;-). The climb up to the ridge starts pretty quickly. This is also where the first snow fields show up. The ridge up to the crest is melted out and has a visible climbers track on it. I had to cross a low-angle snowfield at the start but that was just because I was slightly off track. Once up at the big ridge leading to Mt Ruth, the (rather cool) wind picked up and I ran across a marmot and a ptarmigan mom with five chicks - very well camouflaged! The route up to the summit of Ruth is not always visible in the mix of rock and minor snow patches so a GPX can be helpful here as well - the target is always visible though. The shoulder of Ruth has a relatively steeply angled snowfield on it so I put on my (new, needed to be tested ;-) ) crampons. Some parts of the snowfield have bad runouts so I'd recommend some form of traction. Microspikes might have been enough but the top few inches were slushy and the longer spikes came in handy on the full-on crampons. Eventually I transitioned back on rock for the last few 100 feet up to the summit. Having followed the shoulder ridge, it was maybe a Class II scramble at that point.

After a quick break, I continued on to Steamboat Prow which is another 1000ft above. The route is clearly visible from Ruth, however there is a smallish cliff after coming down from the summit block that required some smart route selection to keep things at a class III level. Ultimately just three big steps but YMMV if one is too far off to the right of left. At this point the altitude starting slowing things down. It had taken ~3h to get to the top of Ruth. Getting to the top of Steamboat Prow took another 50min. The snowfields on the way were no problem with just boots. A decent lunch break with stunning views of Little Tahoma, the Emmons Route up Rainier (lots of parties out, looked like a complex route around lots of crevasses), the camps below and long distance views all the way to Baker and Glacier were the reward.

On the return, I glissaded down almost the full length of the Inter Glacier. The top layer was slushy enough that I didn't have to use much in the way of brakes. Near the bottom, the runoff is audible through the snowfield so some caution is required exiting the glissade tracks back onto rock. From there it's just a pretty scenic hike back down to Glacier Camp. In keeping with the fact that the last few miles of a hike are the most dangerous, I ran into two bears on the (pretty busy) trail back down to the parking lot. They were both coming up the trail and only one of them was impressed enough with my noise making to scamper off the trail right away. The other one kept coming and only eventually decided to leave the trail as well. Gotta love finding different ways to raise one's heartrate ;-).

• Travel Stats: 12.68M / 5500ft according to my Garmin watch, 7h40 elapsed / 6h moving time
• Equipment: Mountaineering boots (B2), trekking poles, crampons. Carried ice axe and helmet, used neither as it never got steep enough on my route and I never had anyone above me but obv. use your best judgement.
• Wildlife: zero people after Glacier Camp to Steamboat. Several Rainier parties coming up the trail on the way down. One marmot, 6 ptarmigans and 2 bears. Almost no bugs.

Arrived to the parking lot around 0645 with plenty of parking, though filled up quickly. Left the campground just after 0700. The first few miles to Glacier Basin Campground were an easy, gentle climb. Crossing Interfork river wasn't too terrible, as we took the first left out of the campground and were able to find a spot to hop across. From there it was a bit of a "choose your own adventure", though there is a trail that will take you past some mining equipment. From there, we came across the first ridge climb. This was my second time on the mountain and the first time, we took the first ridge you come across up, then had to cross a snowfield to get to the summit ridgeline. This time, we crossed a snowfield to get to the "middle ridge", which was a bad idea (a lot of scree backsliding). There is a trail on the far left ridge, which you need to cross two snowfields to get to. I would recommend getting over to the far left ridge low down before you start climbing, but be aware of the snow bridges that are melting out. Once you get to the main ridge line, it's an easy trail to follow. We climbed the boulder field for quite a ways before getting out on the snow to traverse to the final ascent. We used microspikes and an ice axe. The snow was soft by this time to allow a boot pack trail. You'll want to cross the snow fields all the way to the far rocky ridge, where you will be able to summit along the boulder field and avoid the snow. Summit was beautiful with a great view of Rainier and Steamboat Prow. We watched a helicopter rescue from Camp Shurman while eating lunch up there as well. After spending some time on summit, we headed back the way we came (though this time followed the true trail the entire way down). Overall a great day and we only saw two other people on the mountain that day! 

Second time up to climb Mount Ruth and Steamboat Prow from White River Campground. I love this side of Rainier! This time instead of descending the ridge we ascended, we opted to follow all the Emmons Glacier climbers down the Inter Glacier and it was the longest glissade I've ever done! More on that later. In the words of my 23 yo son, "this is a lot harder than Mailbox". Yes, yes it is! Clouds threatened all day but never were a problem. We heard some thunder in the distance late afternoon. 

Arrived at White River Campground at 8am on a Sunday. Still about 10-15 parking spots available. Hiked approx. 3.5 miles up to the Glacier Basin Camp. This is a good quality trail that is a pretty gentle grade for the most part. But so so never ending on the way down. Once at Glacier Basin Camp, we veered left to cross the Inter Fork river. Trip reports from June 11 indicate the crossing was difficult and had to remove boots. We found lots of opportunities to hop across boulders and picked one that seemed reasonable. It put us exactly on the next part of the trail. We hiked up steep dirt switchbacks to get to the ridge with Emmons Glacier on the left and going straight up to Ruth. The ridge is surprisingly snow free. At some point the actual trail veers to the right side of Ruth for the final approach. Here there was still a lot of snow remaining interspersed with rock fields. We picked a path and headed straight up. Poles and spikes or crampons used for this part. We continued alternating between snow and rocks to achieve the summit. 

After a short break, we opted to continue on to Steamboat Prow at 9700' overlooking Camp Shurman, the launch point for Emmons Glacier summit attempts. There was only 1-2 patches of snow that required no traction, plus the one class 4ish down climb that neither of us had a problem with. After quick photos and listening to the active glaciers creaking and constant rock fall, we headed back down. As we were coming up and going down this section, we noticed a lot of climbers coming up to the ridge from Emmons for their final descent down Inter Glacier. About half skied down and the other half glissaded. We were really attracted to the glissade part reducing the need to trudge down the ridge for miles. So as we arrived at Camp Curtis where the climbers stopped to prep to go down Inter, we talked to a couple of guys who were finishing a C2C attempt. I was nervous about going down Inter Glacier without ropes and had not really researched it. But after talking to them we assessed the risk very low - it seems like this glacier is very similar to the Muir snowfield. Yes there are cracks that show up - though we saw none - but they are usually small. All the climbers we saw coming up were not roped either. So we went for it and it was an amazing glissade! Fast enough that we had to break hard the whole time as not to get out of control. And it took us all the way from the ridge down to where the Inter Fork river begins - cutting off probably 1.5 miles! All that remained was 4 miles of slogging on the trail back to the parking lot. 

Stats: 12.6 miles, 5701' gain, 9:15 total time, 2:15 stop time. Ruth - 8690', Steamboat - 9760'

Gear: Waterproof boots, microspikes, poles, gaiters, ice axe for glissading. I also brought a garbage bag system for the glissade to save my gore tex shells from damage and it worked great. 

Water sources: Lots of them up until the Inter Fork river. We drank some on the way up and filled up on the way down again as well. On a sunny day, you'll need a lot of water for this climb. 

GPX track: https://www.peakbagger.com/climber/ascent.aspx?aid=2228159

I agree with the other Mount Ruth trip report for the day that the only part taking a bit of time is figuring out the stream crossing. IMO there are two decent options:

a. Right after the basin campground, take the first junction on the left, then there's a section where you can cross in about ankle-deep water without exposure (we took our boots off but I also saw some skiers just winging it on their way back with boots on).

b. Take the trail and cross in the upper basin where the stream is still covered by snow. We didn't take this approach since it's way off from the Mount Ruth target, but it would work fine if you're going up Inter Glacier.

Ascent to Mount Ruth was straight-forward, we stayed one ridge to the right of the route penciled in on maps, but it was all on good snow at an easy angle. Once on the main ridge, there's a good climber's trail.

We had some juice left after ascending Mt. Ruth and opted to add Steamboat Prow. I liked the traverse, just stay on the ridge the whole time and again there's a good climber's trail. There is one short section that requires a couple class 3 (maybe one class 4) move. Excellent views from the peak onto Camp Schurman and the glaciers.

On the way back: best glissade I ever had down the Inter Glacier - about 2500 ft vertical down in a single run.