Gannett Peak Route Beta

[Apex]

Anyone been up Gannett recently? How's the bergschrund look below Gooseneck? Summit ridge pretty melted out?

Trying to dig up some beta for a buddy heading up Glacier trail this week.

Randall

[jblyth]

Why don't you go up there and find out yourself! Haha, just kidding man.

Pete26 and I did it last week from Elkhart - Monday to Thursday. Berg was filled in, can't imagine it'll open up for at least a few weeks. Ridge was an awesome snow climb, can't imagine that'll melt out soon either, plenty of snow back there. The glacier trail approach looked pretty dry until you hit the glacier; not as snowy as the Elkhart approach. There was a group up there who took the glacier approach and said it wasn't bad. We brought all our gear and but didn't use anything besides axe and pons.

The mosquitos weren't too bad yet, but they will be in a week or so.

Let me know if you need pics or anymore info.

[Apex]

I wish I could get out there and check for myself! Already burned my mountain budget for the year...Thanks for the beta. Pretty sure my buddy was trying to figure out whether to bring a rope or not. Doesn't sound like he'll need one.

Thanks again.

Randall

[sm0421]

Thank you so much!! Heading there tomorrow and this saved me all the weight for ropes/protection gears.

-Alex

[GregMiller]

Summited Tuesday. The climber's right 1/3 of the bergschrund was open, but we were able to cross the left side with no issue. Never pulled the rope out of the pack, just used axe and crampons. Summit ridge was still quite snowy, and required face in down-climbing due to poor snow conditions - combination of recent warm weather and clouds that afternoon, I guess. Be prepared for a long day, and good luck!

[sm0421]

We got up there on Friday, 7/1.

thanks to all the posts, we didn't bring ropes/protections and only used crampons and axe. Got to the summit ridge by 9am and snow is already soft, didn't push to the top.

-Alex

[Sean Nunn]

Can someone with some familiarity give a brief rundown on the difficulty of Gannett?
My primary mountain goal is the 14ers and perhaps the centennials.
Much further down my bucket list would be the high points in the lower 48 (although I have nothing against Hawaii, Denali is out of my league).
So that is the reason for my interest.

[TallGrass]

Can someone with some familiarity give a brief rundown on the difficulty of Gannett?

Of the lower 48, neck and neck with Granite the MT highpoint. Both have multiple approaches that vary in difficulty. Think Gannett has, what, two ways from the east, one from the south, and one from the north to it's west side? I was looking at the N-W one to skip the snow in favor or rock scrambling.

Granite, FWIW, has a couple variations to Avalanche Lake (via Snowball or Cold lakes) which shares the final ridge run with Frozen to Death, then another one or two from the south, and a bypass of Avalanche in favor of West Granite combo.

SP is a good place to start looking.
http://www.summitpost.org/gannett-peak/150362
http://www.summitpost.org/granite-peak/150239
http://www.summitpost.org/the-granite-p ... 5-4/860339
http://www.summitpost.org/point-12-745- ... eak/860185

[sm0421]

Can someone with some familiarity give a brief rundown on the difficulty of Gannett?
My primary mountain goal is the 14ers and perhaps the centennials.
Much further down my bucket list would be the high points in the lower 48 (although I have nothing against Hawaii, Denali is out of my league).
So that is the reason for my interest.

Gannett is the most difficult highpoint in the lower 48 states (I've climbed all) for the following reasons:

1. Long approach, most above 10k ft. About 26miles one way from Glacier Trail, which is the easier route. The route itself is a horse trail, so not too bad.
- higher chance of bad weather, PM thunderstorm/hail very common.
- two major creek crossing needs boots off.
- crampon compatible boots are heavier for long approach.
- annoying mosquitos, very bad, bug repel barely useful.
- isolated, good chance you are the only party climbing for a given day.

2. Small time window for ideal climbing condition, usually late June - early July. In this window you don't need heavy snow climbing gears (ropes, pickets etc)

3. Climbing the glacier itself is not too bad, about Hood/Rainier level, a bit steeper. Summit ridge is exposed, so need to be comfortable with crossing exposed snow field.