Steamboat Prow, Mount Ruth, Glacier Basin & Emmons Moraine — Sunday, Jun. 21, 2020

Steamboat Prow is my favorite hike. I have come here every year since 2015. Normally the best time to ascend Inter Glacier is from early to mid June when Glacier Basin is under snowpack. Right now snowpack is still heavy compared to the same week last year.

I left White River Campground about 7:40AM. The camp site is closed indefinitely, open for day use only. The parking lot was half empty but to my great relief, the restrooms are open now.

The trail to Glacier Basin camp is gentle and relatively flat. I usually keep relaxed pace on this section just for warmup. I got GB camp site 9:10AM, snow still deep, I put on crampons and arrived GB around 9:40AM. I took food and water break here, and had to collect myself both physically and mentally for the real stuff: climbing 3,000 feet in 2 miles up the Inter Glacier.

It took me two and half hours to cover the 2-mile stretch. It was all about elementary counting exercises: every 100 steps I stopped and breathed, in many sections I barely made 40 or 30, in the end I simply stopped counting. Luckily there were plenty foot tracks to step in today, saving my energy from kicking steps.

I summit Steamboat Prow at 12:15PM. My GPS says it’s 9714 feet. Quite a few skiers were also up there at the same time. This was the most crowded summit I’ve ever had in 6 years.

I left Steamboat Prow about 1PM and took Mount Ruth route to go home. The temptation of glissading was too hard to resist even though snow became really soft. The White River creek was fairly easy to cross comparing to late Summer, thanks largely to still-frozen snowpack.

On my way back I had time and strength left to visit Emmons Moraine, first time for me, a cute, photogenic place to stop by but social distancing was poor.