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Ascent of Gannett Peak on 2019-07-23

Climber: Greg Gerlach

Others in Party:	Keith Christensen Paul Garry
Date:	Tuesday, July 23, 2019
Ascent Type:	Successful Summit Attained
Peak:	Gannett Peak
Location:	USA-Wyoming
Elevation:	13804 ft / 4207 m
Ascent Trip Report Our group spent 1.5 days driving the 1000 miles from southern California to the Glacier Trailhead. From there, we started backpacking in at 3:30 p.m. and managed to do 7 miles before dark, camping at a marginal and waterless site just before the pass. The next day, we backpacked another 17 miles, finding a great campsite about one mile from the end of the Glacier Trail at 10500' in elevation. We managed to cross Dinwoody Creek at the partially flooded-out bridge without getting wet by crossing on logs, the part of the bridge that is still above water, and islands, but we had to ford the knee high water of Klondike Creek. On the third day, we left camp at 4:10 a.m., walking up the trail to its end and then accoss the moraine, then climbing the mountain via its Standard Route up the glacier and the peak's south ridge, mostly on snow but also up some class 2 to class 2+ rock. The bergschrund was completely covered with snow. Further, the route up the snow is very steep in places, maybe 60 degrees, requiring good crampon and ice ax skills; we had a rope, but did not use it. Also, the snow was perfect for crampons, with just occasional post holing along the ridge near some of the rocks. Craig and Vanessa from Seattle were about 5 minutes behind us in reaching the top. I counted another 6 people who attempted, but failed to reach the summit. After signing the summit register, we retraced our route back to camp, arriving at 4:00 p.m., for a 12 hour day. On the fourth day, our group backpacked about 13 miles, camping at Double Lake, and on the fifth day we backpacked the remaining 11 miles out to the car, arriving at 1:00 p.m.