A relaxed glacier climb to a panoramic summit.
Ruth Mountain is a beautiful, pleasant, and relaxed trip for both climbers and skiers. You travel across glaciers, but not the active part of them, so you will likely see hikers on the route who aren't roped up. It also makes a good playground for inexperienced glacier travelers.
We started our day at 9 AM from the Hannegan trailhead. The road to the trailhead was in good condition, and any car could make it. The first 4.3 miles are on good trail that leads to Hannegan Pass. The last running water source was at Hannegan Camp.
After Hannegan Pass, you ascend a steep trail to gain the ridge. This part was the crux of my last trip here. It was super slippery, covered in icy snow. This time it was almost dry, which made the ascent a lot faster and more relaxed.
Once on the ridge, we put on our crampons and mountaineering boots and traversed the back side to reach the summit ridge proper. You can see the whole route from here, and it is never steep. For the last 1000 feet or so we roped up, and soon we were on the summit.
The summit gives a panoramic view of the North Cascades. Mount Spickard and Mount Redoubt sit to the north, the Northern and Southern Pickets range to the east, and there are impressive views of Mount Shuksan and Mount Baker.
After spending some time at the summit block, we started back. On the way down we ran into a thunderstorm that brought really heavy rain and hail. My backpack and I were both soaked. We also heard a mudslide set off by the heavy rain. Luckily the storm passed after an hour, and we made it back to the trailhead in 10 hours and 30 minutes round trip.
