The climbing route starts out at Timberline Lodge (though some guided groups take snowcats up from the Lodge to the top of the Palmer Lift, which is freaking cheating, man - so where can I hitch a ride on one?) and climbs up to the far right of the Palmer snowfield, just to the left of the White River Glacier, which is down in the depression between the cliffs (the immense rock wall on the right is called Steel Cliff) and melted out rock on the right and the snow slope on the left. Once you reach the top of the Palmer you traverse left over the top of the rocks in the middle of the snowfield, and angle up toward Crater Rock, which is the large rock formation in the middle of the upper mountain. From there most groups rope up on what is known as the Hogsback, a ridge to the immediate right of Crater Rock, and then continue past or over the bergschrund (a large crevasse where a glacier peels away from the mountain) depending on conditions, then up a steepish 35-degree chute known as the Pearly Gates. From there it's an easy scramble over wind-sculpted snow and ice to the summit, which is a small, fairly unstable cornice (a windblown lip of snow and ice), actually. To the north is a 2500-foot drop to the Coe Glacier below.