The route to the Kautz high camp requires roped glacier travel and some steep snow slopes. By hiking in the late evening we got a head start, making a bivouac at 6,200 feet next to the Nisqually Glacier in fine weather at 9:30pm.

The accompanying picture, taken from the starting point of the climb near the Paradise parking lot, shows the route. The large feature to the right of the prominent trees is Gibralter Rock. The Nisqually Ice Fall is just left of the the prominent trees; the Nisqually Glacier continues into the valley hidden by the trees. After crossing the lower Nisqually Glacier and the Wilson Glacier the route ascends a snow field known as The Turtle (which looks like road kill in this picture). The high camp is at 11,300 feet next to the tongue of the Kautz Glacier. The red line shows the route. The top of the lower line ends where “high camp” is. The break in the line shows where we traversed into the chute of ice (aka headwall) that is the lower tongue of the Kautz.