Trail is good and easy to follow until the mountain itself at the end of the ruth arm (above treeline). Traveling on the glacier is not recommended right now as it is mostly melted down to solid ice. I doubt it was possible last year, but the glacier can be totally bypassed at this point in the season. Aim for the large knob on the NE ridge and stay right of it, hugging the cliff closely. Today (9/21), I only had to cross over about 20 feet of ice/snow, and was fine without any traction or an ice axe. Next year I expect this route will be entirely rock. Crazy to see how much the ice has receded over the last few years of trip reports.
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dchk on Ruth Mountain
I did this one year ago to the day and last year was probably the first year the glacier had melted above some steeper slabs allowing a fairly straight forward hike/scramble to the summit window around this time of year. FYI, my trip report (https://www.wta.org/go-hiking/trip-reports/trip_report.2023-09-21.5631698398)has side by side images from the saddle almost exactly 10 years apart showing the big meltdown.
Posted by:
dchk on Sep 21, 2024 08:19 PM