cloudcap to langile, snowdome, mooney, timberline, ER

[Chip Down]

No pics, sorry.

Stepped out of my car at Cloud Cap and found it eerily warm and calm. Good thing I decided not to postpone when I saw 25mph east gusts forcasted for Government Camp. Figured it could be brutal up on the NE slopes, but never more than a breeze all day, and actually a little too warm.

Just barely light enough at 6:45 to follow trails. With a return crossing of the Eliot needed to get back to the TH, I figured I'd be back before dark, but packed a headlamp anyway.

After contending with the maze of trails around Cloudcap, I reached the eastern Eliot moraine crest at 7:15, just in time to watch the orange sunrise (later in the morning I would see, and maybe even smell, the smoke) before dropping into the canyon.

Crossing was simple and straightforward. Bombed down to the creek, hopped right across, straight up the other side to the rope (which I didn't touch), and at 7:45 I was on the western moraine crest, ready to follow it up. Okay, I exagerate, the crossing wasn't that easy, but certainly simple compared to what I expected. Oh, and no ice on the rocks. There was no way I could make that crossing if the rocks were all iced up.

Ascending the west moraine crest I kept looking for an opportunity to get over Langile Crags, but too rugged, nothing looked like a sure thing. Also kept an eye out for a descent to Eliot that would allow a quick visit to the terminus w/o having to go all the way back to the rope, but this too was unfruitful. Eventually the moraine crest came to an end at cliffs (9:15). From here, I could safely drop to Eliot in the afternoon on my return, but it was pretty high up the glacier, and decending to the snout could be tricky.

Anyway, my current challenge was getting to the west side of upper Langile Crags. Drop to the glacier and use the moat? Maybe, but couldn't quite see where it went (later, from above, could see it would be impossible). Cut right up the breach in the cliffs? Almost doable, and certainly the most direct route, but a slip in the crumbly gully could be tragic (longish, somewhat exposed). So I backtracked a bit, parallel to the moraine crest, trying this and that. I was feeling cautious today. Wasn't willing to scramble up something I couldn't downclimb if I were to hit a dead end. Finally got up over Langile Crags and was shocked to see Mooney Tarn right there below me. I had expected considerable difficulty locating it, but there it was.

With time to kill, I potponed the Mooney visit, and explored up some grassy rocky slopes with nice views of the Eliot, until I found myself just below the lower reaches of Snow Dome (a misnomer; it's obviously crevassed, just not as much as Eliot to the east or Coe to the west). Dropped just a bit, and followed the Snow Dome creek (which drains to Eliot Glacier) up to the lowest extent of the ice. From here, I was tempted by the low rocky rib dividing Eliot from Snow Dome, which looks like it begins right across the glacier from Tie In Rock. Since I was here, it seemed crazy to not ascend it to the end, where it's surrounded by ice and Snow Dome is indistinguishable from Eliot. But I had my heart set on other adventures, so down I went (briefly considered skirting Snow Dome, traveling west and then descending the east edge of Coe, but didn't look feasible). I took a descent route further west, away from the Eliot views. Mistake. Tedious and ugly.

Finally met up with my ascent route, and veered off towards Mooney, on jumbled piles of rock, football-through-beach-ball sized. One rolled, and by a twist of fate I landed on my bad shoulder and utterly destroyed it. After all my caution today, picking the safe routes and not taking chances, it was madenning to have my hiking season cut short on my second trip by a stupid rolling rock.

With a now-useless left arm, and one treking pole on my pack, I continued to Mooney. Yeah, I really am that badass. Or stupid, whatever. Anyway, from here it was possibly easiest/fastest to drop to Mooney and then to the TL trail, so really it wasn't that crazy. The tarn was nice, and I
realized how close it is to Coe (and also how close Langile is to Coe). I must have just barely missed it a few years ago when I crossed Coe from Elk Cove, visiting the Coe terminus (lowest on Hood, I believe) before bushwhacking to the TL trail. I've been wanting to repeat that trip to see how the EC trail looks after the DL fire, and to explore the terrain east of the upper Coe, but
that long EC trail is daunting. Also, must have overlooked Mooney on an early-season trip many years ago, when it would have been under snow.

But back to today: I was in no mood to search for the Mooney wreckage, so started down the outlet creek from the tarn, and there it was! Nice little bonus. Continued down, veering towards Cloudcap in hopes of minimizing trail distance on the TL. I hate cross-country travel below treeline, where I can't really see where I'm going, but before long I could see the trail crossing a meadow far below, so it was nice to have a definite goal.

Before long, the trail took me to the Eliot closure, so I went uphill and met up with my morning route. With my lifeless limp arm at my side, I don't know how I would have gotten down without that rope! Really wanted to take that side trip to the Eliot snout, but decided it will be there later. Gotta save something for the bucket list, right? On the east moraine, I just shot straight up. Not dangerous, but unpleasant. Wished I had followed the cairns on the gentle easy trail.

If you think this took too long to read, imagine writing it!

[Guy]

Nice report Chip, I've made that upper crossing to Langile Crags but not been up to the Snow Dome yet. We were up on Cooper Spur Sunday too. Scoured this photo to see if I could pick you out but no luck!

[Chase]

I'm confused about how you got from the glacier to the pace above Mooney.

Did you go behind the scree-hump in the center of this pic?

[Chip Down]

I'm confused about how you got from the glacier to the pace above Mooney.

Did you go behind the scree-hump in the center of this pic?

That was the plan, but it got a bit steepish, icy, not scenic, just all around bleh. So I came closer (lower in the pic). Probably should have come even lower, down to where the shrubs are, at the low point before rising up to your vantage point. From there, Mooney is (as you probably know) just below the crest, to the right (from the perspective of the pic viewer).