Gladstone Peak

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 6/21/2021, By: Will_E
Info: See my Wilson Peak conditions report for info on ROA approach. From the start of the ridge to summit, just a few firm snowfields to cross. I stayed ridge proper to avoid snow along the east side go the ridge. 

Route: East Face
Posted On: 5/23/2021, By: supranihilest
Info: I climbed Gladstone's east face from Cross Mountain trailhead. The first .6-.7 miles are mostly snow free, but very muddy. In some spots the trail is literally a stream. Snow begins at this point, and while it was marginally OK in the morning it was full of annoying boot postholes. On my descent I left a nasty trench of snowshoe postholes. At least route finding will be really easy now. Take the trail to the Lizard Head/Cross Mountain saddle. The route from this saddle is all pretty straight forward. Descend on snow into Bilk Basin and make your way towards Gladstone as you see fit. Currently the rock glaciers are completely covered in snow, which made travel significantly easier. I kept my snowshoes on until the base of the Class 3 cliff band, switched to crampons, then scrambled up one of the arbitrary breaks in it. It was definitely Class 3 and snow and ice upped the difficulty some; crampons worked great in the frozen turf. Most of the rock is good but select holds carefully. Above the cliff band is an easy snow section that leads to a couloir to the summit. This couloir was the spicy part of the day since it is very steep (50 degrees at least) and was full of super hard, icy snow. Most steps I had to kick 5 to 10 times to make a comfortable enough divot, which was exhausting. Exposure in this couloir is also extremely high, a slip would probably be unarrestable on such hard snow, and you'd go flying over the cliff band and all the way to the bottom of the basin. Climb with extreme care. I found using the rock along the right side of the couloir beneficial. I only stayed on the summit for a minute or two since the sun was rapidly warming things up. I reversed my route as best as I could, facing inward and reusing my steps. I scrambled down a slightly easier section of the cliff band slightly farther to descender's right, collected my snowshoes, and headed towards Cross Mountain, which I bailed on because of deteriorating snow. By 10am I was sinking to my ankles; 10:30 to my knees; 10:45 to my thighs. I returned to the Lizard Head/Cross Mountain saddle and snowshoed back to the trailhead. Snow below treeline was hard if it was in the shade but super mushy and wet if it was in the sun. Again, because of the awful postholing you'll have no trouble route finding to the saddle above Bilk Basin. Gear: flotation, ice axe, and crampons all mandatory. Microspikes will not be sufficient on such steep and hard snow. A second axe would not be a bad choice. Skiable from the summit right now as well, excellent coverage from summit to the cliff band and from the bottom of the cliff band to the basin. The cliff is the only place between the summit and the basin that is not skiable. 

Route: East Face
Posted On: 5/10/2021, By: jeffdmar
Info: From Cross Mountain TH, began hiking at 3:40am and was pleased to encounter pretty consistent runs of snow only approx 3/4-mile from the TH. Snow had some gaps so I kept my hiking-boots on instead of switching to AT boots and skins; I believe this to have been the right call. Although post-holing on occasion, the vast majority of the time I was able to find firm consolidated snow and made reasonably good time up to (and above) tree-line while staying in my hiking boots with the skis on my back. Above tree-line the snow was excellent, and although I stayed boot-packing, skinning would have been easy and efficient, as well. There is a several-hundred yard run of dirt trail starting approximately 3/4-mile below the pass, essentially along a ridgeline. But at this point it was first light (just after 5am) and I could see that once past the dirt section there were ample snow fields that would take me to the pass without problem. Skinned up, achieved the pass, de-skinned, and dropped maybe 300-400 vertical feet down into Bilk Basin while heading west towards the obvious east face. Skinning was fantastic up until the slope angle amplified to the point (maybe around 12,500-ft) where the skis were replaced with crampons. Then it was just a matter of choosing your line and slogging up to the rock-band. The morning sun was starting to loosen things up at this point already (7am) and if hadn't gotten overcast to slow down the melting I would have bemoaned the fact that I didn't get an earlier start. Dropped my skis below the rock-band after traversing all the way to looker's left. Clearing the rock-band was fairly straightforward, and the route is along a nice ramp up and to the right to where a small couloir comes down straight from the summit. The couloir is longer than I anticipated, and relatively steep. I had just a whippet which was fine, but if the snow were any looser I would have wanted a whippet AND a proper ice-axe. Front pointed up the couloir to the summit, achieved at 9:15am under (blessedly) overcast skies. To get down the couloir, turning face-in and front-pointing backwards was necessary. The snow stayed firm for me, but if the sun would have been out in full force I can imagine it would have been uncomfortably soft. Below the rock-band I put on the skis and the ski descent was excellent; couple inches of perfect corn on a nice firm base. Bottoming out after traversing some in an effort not to lose too much elevation, had to transition to skins to get back up to the pass. Kept skins on at the top and linked the visible alleyways of snow, staying left, without losing too much elevation. Had to carry the skis through the portions of dirt trail mentioned above along the ridge. Then the skis (without skins) came on again and the only task was to stay close to the ski/skin track so that I didn't get too far off and miss the trail. Skis stayed on all the way down the trail, although there were patches of dirt to either try and skirt, de-ski and portage, or simply waddle across (as one does). Again, having an overcast day here was incredible on the descent below tree-line, as the snow would easily have turned to mashed-potatoes on a bright sunny day. But the skin-line (the trail) stayed firm for me and greatly facilitated a comfortable descent. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 9/28/2020, By: jscully205
Info: Mostly dry with some east facing patchy snow as you get closer to the summit. I thought the snow was mostly avoidable. Rock on ridge proper was more stable vs dropping lower. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 9/7/2020, By: durkan
Info: Ignorantly took the route advertised in Roach's 13ers book. Gaining the ridge proved to be the crux of this route; highly dangerous without snow packed in. I suggest doing the entire ridge from Rock of Ages Pass. Not only is it safer, but way more fun. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 8/16/2020, By: Danger_D
Info: Summer conditions from all approaches. There is some really fun climbing on the ridge but that sucker is loooong, both in time and mental energy. It took me 2 hours each way on the ridge to get back to the Wilson Peak trail at 13,200 and escape is only possible part of the time. There isn't anything crazy on the route, just lots of class 3/4 scambling with lots of ups and downs. If you're ticking off lists, get after it, but I would choose something more fun for just a random trip 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 8/10/2020, By: CaptainSuburbia
Info: Great route if you stay on ridge proper. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 7/20/2020, By: yaktoleft13
Info: Summer conditions. Had a blast on this route! Ignore the cairns and only deviate from ridge proper when it's obvious, and when you do, climb back to the ridge crest as soon as possible 

Route: East Face
Posted On: 7/2/2020, By: dwoodward13
Info: This is a fantastic route and should be the standard route if you have orphaned it from Wilson Peak. Snow ramps are in excellent condition to cruise on up. I brought both spikes and pons and started with spikes but switched to pons as I just felt more comfortable on the steeper snow slopes. HikerGuys TR is an excellent resource and I basically followed it to the T. Only comment to make is after crossing between the two snowfields on the very upper face, head further toward the ridge, almost to the ridge itself, there is really solid lichen covered rock. Was able to boot ski/glissade the snow ramps descending. Left at 5am, summit at 9am, back to car at 1230pm Pic 1 overview from afar Pic 2 snow ramp Pic 3 upper face. Yellow is what I took up and is slightly looser than red I took down 

Route: East Face
Posted On: 6/29/2020, By: Grover
Info: Climbed the peak on Friday, just listing today's date to get it at the top of the list. Add me to the growing list of climbers who think the East Face route is actually enjoyable and should be the preferred route for this intimidating peak. Cross Mtn. TH > Lizard Pass is snow free. The drop down into the basin is a matter of choosing your line to get to the ramps. There are still some snow ramps that you can use to make quick work up the East Face. I used crampons and poles for these initial ramps, since I did not bring microspikes, but wish I did, as I would have used them here to save time. You can hike on the ground/rock next to the snow, but eventually you will (should) transfer to the snow. Very straightforward to determine where to leave the snow and get onto the rock to the left (south) of the cliff band you are avoiding. The climb up to the short exposed section is not difficult and comes quick. The persistent snow atop the cliff band can be avoided, as the rock there is super solid. I think I put one foot into the snow coming down. I recommend going further to your right (north) to find the coveted lichen covered rock to climb straight to the summit and the famous crow bar. This peak is still in the Wilson Group, so some rocks will move slightly or tilt, but nothing slid at me/on me and I thought the route was solid. I want to say thanks here to HikerGuy, wineguy & JQDivide for their recent Trip Reports on this route, as I pulled from them to make my cheat sheet for my climb. And thanks to dhagan and KalenJones for some beta via PM after their recent climbs. Image 1: The conditions of the East Face as of Friday Image 2: Looking up at the exposed section and cliff band after stepping off the snow Image 3: The exposed section above the cliff band Image 4: Looking down over the East Face from ~20' off the summit 

Route: East Face
Posted On: 6/15/2020, By: dhagan
Info: Great day for Gladstone Peak via East Face (except for all the smoke from nearby wildfires). Cross Mountain trail snow free to Lizard Head Pass. The low traverse around Bilk Basin below Cross Mountain and Gladstone has a few snow patches that are easily passable. There continues to be nearly continuous snow until the steeper final summit pitch. The upper cliff band just below this is an easy scramble between snow sections. The snow is well consolidated and easily manageable with the morning sun without crampons, though crampons would be very reasonable to use as well. I am so glad we did this rather than the "standard" North Ridge route. Way more fun with snow ascent and descent and reasonably stable rock for the scramble sections. Much better than the treacherous reports for the North Ridge route. 

Route: East Face
Posted On: 6/11/2020, By: KalenJones
Info: Trail to Lizard Head saddle essentially snow free. Good coverage on east face up to steeper rock. Crampons much appreciated on ascent, good glissading conditions with 10:15 am departure from summit, on sunny but breezy and cooler than average day. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 8/15/2019, By: tjf242424
Info: Dry the entire way from Rock of Ages saddle. The ridge is long (took us about 4 hours round trip). 

Route: East Face
Posted On: 8/13/2019, By: angry
Info: Recommend carrying an axe, as a slip on the snow field would send you into rocks. Dry from ridge to summit. Ascended same route as hiker guy but descended below cross mountain ridge to avoid snow on the way out and head directly back to the cross mountain trail. 

Route: East Face
Posted On: 8/8/2019, By: glenmiz
Info: Less snow than the previous condition report. Snow was supportive but mushy and slippery.