Very good TR and beautiful photos,
and always great to live vicariously thru such adventures!
Father Time has kicked my butt there several times over the
years. As an old fart, it's also sad to see the diminution of
the glaciers over the past 40+ years. The snow pack on Ruth and
Icy appears to have reduced substantially, although it may be
that you're climbing a bit later in the year.
Cathy and I were also wondering
about the choice to camp on the ridge prior to summiting Ruth,
rather than doing the carryover to camp overlooking Nooksack
cirque. It would seem you'd have had the time, especially as you
didn't even have to rope up for Ruth's ascent, and it made the
following day's summit day longer. Spending a second night on
the mountain is wise as, on prior climbs, we usually ended up
arriving back at the Hannegan trailhead near 8 to 9pm. You were
blessed in that the historically miserable "muddy gully" above
Hannegan pass appears rather benign from the photos; that gully
ascent/descent has been typically marked by both mud and the
curses of climbers who were slipping and clinging to the
vegetable belays!
And, good call on hunkering in
place during the storm; the downside risk in breaking camp and
negotiating the exit route/gullies during darkness (after you're
already exhausted from a long climb day) just doesn't pass the
common sense test.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/visit/know-before-you-go/lightning -
Hopefully, as Shonee noted, you didn't attempt to cuddle with
your ice ax/pickets!