The hike is totally worth it - especially if you can make it to the summit for sunrise. We hiked up late Friday afternoon with our packs which made it pretty rough coming the steep switch backs but we made it up and set up our camp at the base of the summit before it was dark. It was pretty cold (we woke up to frost) but luckily our new mummy bags kept us warm. It was pretty hard to part with our warm, cozy mummy bags in the morning because it was still really cold and dark when we planned to get up to finish the hike to the summit before sunrise. We did eventually get up and we made it part way up the summit and stopped to watch the sunrise. Absolutely stunning.
Then we hiked the rest of the way to the top and took in the spectacular view. While at the top we met a really nice guy who asked if we were planning to slide down the glacier (which really isn't a glacier - it's just a permanent snowfield). We had thought about, but didn't really know how to go about it or where the trail lead to it was. He said he had done it 10 years ago and it was a lot of fun and much quicker than hiking down the summit.
So we followed him to the glacier. It was definitely an adventure, but not one that we would like to repeat.
The snow was really ice over rocks which cut and bruised our hands and rears the whole way down. It was also pretty challenging to keep yourself from going too fast and sliding out of control on the ice - it's really steep. So after tearing holes in our pants, bruising our rears (bruises which are still massive and sore over a week later), and cutting up our hands on the first patch of glacier, we devised a strategy. As much as we didn't want to keep going down the glacier, we couldn't turn back, but we could control our speed thus minimizing the pain if we went down the more bumpy part of the glacier. Darren would go first get to a point where he could stop himself and uses a rock as leverage. Then I would slide down and run into Darren.
We took it slow which made the "shortcut" not so short whenyou factor in that we also had to hike an hour back to the trail from the glacier. In the end, we determined that sliding down the glacier not only gave us some wicked bruises but added two hours to our hike and trashed two pairs of fleece pants.
Our recommendation to other hikers: Hike the summit for sunrise. Don't slide down the glacier.
