Route Description
Time: 4 hours and 30 minutes round trip from Snowgrass Flat Camp Distance: 4 miles, 2000 ft elevation gain
The scramble route to Ives Peak from Snowgrass Flat is straightforward. From the junction of the PCT and Snowgrass Trail, make your way up to the saddle (46.50362, -121.44986) on the north ridge. Follow the ridge until you reach the summit wall, then drop slightly to pick up a ramp that leads onto the southwest face.
From there, traverse about 40 ft to climber’s right on loose terrain, then head up easy scrambling terrain to the summit. Going straight up immediately after the ramp is possible, but the slope is steep and loose with expoure on the summit cliff.
Trip Report
Day 3 of our Goat Rocks peak bagging trip. The previous days we tagged Gilbert Peak – West Route and Old Snowy Mountain: https://www.hippohamster.com/posts/south_cascades/gilbert_peak/
As usual, Chutang and I started at 6 am from Snowgrass Flat trailhead. To our surprise, the route up Ives Peak turned out to be very straightforward. The boulder-hopping section was solid and stable, and once we gained the north ridge, a clear path led us toward the ramp accessing the southwest face.
After exiting the ramp, we tried heading directly upward, but quickly found the terrain steep, loose, and exposed to the summit cliff on the left. Instead, we traversed about 40 ft to climber’s right, where the rock was firm and the line stayed mostly class 2 all the way to the summit.
From the top, we checked out McCall Glacier. It looked heavily broken up, but still seemed like it might go early in the season—I could see a line that would gain the north ridge saddle.
Many people traverse the ridge from Old Snowy to Ives, but looking at it, the route doesn’t appear very obvious and much of the rock looks crumbly. If the goal is simply to tag both peaks, I think it makes more sense to descend the trail from Old Snowy and re-ascend from the PCT around 6666’ (46.50302, -121.46161). That would likely take the same amount of time or even be quicker.
GPS: https://www.peakbagger.com/climber/ascent.aspx?aid=2967872
