Years ago, I considered trying to go around Illumination Rock. Was warned it's difficult. I never tried it, because I don't like hard hikes, but finally decided to take a shot at it.
Illumination Saddle would be a sensible place to begin a CCW trip, but I decided to go CW from below. Couldn't find a sensible safe way to drop onto Reid Glacier. I'm sure I could have much lower, but if I was too low then I'd have to get through the beautiful but rugged icefall zone.
Later, tried dropping in from the saddle, but it was tough. I've read multiple times that it's super sketchy without snow, and it really was. If I had a 20' ladder, it would be a cinch. (Not a rope though, because it was so crumbly I wouldn't even want to set a boot on it.)
As failures go, it was moderately fun and rewarding. The views from Illumination Ridge were amazing, and I especially liked seeing Reid Headwall and the south face of Yocum Ridge without snow.
This was labor day weekend, the day Eagle Creek fire started.
Illumination Circumnavigation; a fail tale
Illumination Circumnavigation; a fail tale
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- Headed for that obvious snowy breach in Illumination Ridge. I imagined this would be analogous to Illumination Saddle, so I called it Illumination Saddle South.
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- Getting close. The little rocky hump to the left was a neat spot to visit.
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- From South Saddle I encountered a little surprise: One more minor ridge between me and the glacier. I now realize that this was evident from below, so I shouldn't have been surprised.
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- Looking back.
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- A lovely spot to camp: level, soft, good water, great views of Reid. Potential for wind though. This was a great place to hang out for an hour. Above here, it soon got into loose 3rd Class with minor routefinding challenges.
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- Upper Reid Glacier and Reid Headwall. Brown rock to the left is the south face of Yocum. The first slightly-snowy funnel right of Yocum is Leuthold Couloir.
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- Scrambling up Illumination.
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- This is about as high as I got up Illumination. I was at a narrow saddle with views to Reid and ZigZag. It was a natural place to call it quits. Yellow arrow marks abandoned sling.
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- Reid from Illumination Saddle
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- ZigZag deserves a little respect, in spite of barely being a glacier.
Last edited by Chip Down on September 13th, 2017, 8:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Illumination Circumnavigation; a fail tail
bonus pics
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- I guess you could say this was the crux of my hike
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- notice the two photobombs just right of the bottle
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- I love the illumination* of Mississippi Glacier
* see what I did there?
Re: Illumination Circumnavigation; a fail tale
Sweet!
I'd be happy just to make it to the saddle area! I've heard the rockfall is dangerous though
The moon rose right @ illumination in early july if you were @ larch mt. Really rad!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-qAC1XXXeo
I'd be happy just to make it to the saddle area! I've heard the rockfall is dangerous though
The moon rose right @ illumination in early july if you were @ larch mt. Really rad!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-qAC1XXXeo
Re: Illumination Circumnavigation; a fail tale
I'd never been to Illumination Saddle in the summer. Based on observations on a previous weekend, I took my helmet, and quickly dashed from boulder to boulder. Of course, you could probably stand in one spot all day and never get hit, but it's a bit unnerving to see the saddle area littered with so many rocks.markesc wrote:I've heard the rockfall is dangerous though