Eliot terminus, Langille, Recession Lakes, Mooney, Coe Glaci

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Last October I first attempted this hike. Got distracted by a side trip up to Snowdome, and on the way back to Mooney I fell and broke an arm and a couple ribs, which really put a damper on my mood, making the day much less fun than anticipated. Almost exactly a year later, I returned on a snowy weekend, knowing the snow might mean failure, but I figured it would be fun and interesting.

Started out a bit before sunrise, when it was just light enough to evaluate the new snow cover. Much less than expected, just a dusting up high, like maybe 8000'? Virtually clear skies. It looked like the day could be amazing.

Ascended from Cloudcap and dropped into the usual Eliot crossing, but first I headed up to visit the Eliot terminus. It was just as fun and scenic as I remembered. Very highly recommended.

Back down to the unofficial Eliot crossing, up the west moraine, and up to Langille Crags. Clouds were building and dropping lower, and as I was getting close to the nice flat campsites uphill from Langille Crags, it started snowing. (Throughout this TR, I'll refer to snow falling when it was technically graupel.) Popped over the ridge and dropped to Recession Lakes (the western one is generally called Mooney Tarn, named for the Mooney airplane that crashed here in 1975, practically landing right in the tarn, but ending up a few yards down the outlet creek). The east lake was dry, as I think it usually is. I have no doubt it's a proper tarn on a hot june day when the snowmelt is pouring down.

I was intending to explore up the east edge of the Coe Glacier, and there was a break in the weather, so I figured I'd check it out. Getting directly over to Coe would require a horrible canyon crossing with steepish perenial icy snow at the bottom, and a crumbly steep climb back up. No thanks. So instead I headed up and slightly west, until I got high enough to assess my options. There was nothing technically difficult, but lots of loose rock, no views, enough snow to make things slippery. Would be easy with good snow coverage. Or even if the remaining perenial snowfields were in good condition for glisading back down. So I sat and thought about whether I really wanted to do this. Clouds were thickening again, and I could no longer see Mooney Tarn. It was coldish (maybe 30F?) and breezy, and the terrain sucked, and I knew continuing up into clouds could be tricky, and I might never get a view. Call me a wimp, but hell no. Some other day.

I carefully picked my way down to Mooney Tarn in the pea soup, and it went pretty well, aided by occasional clearings when I could refine my route. At the frozen tarn, I spread my lunch out on a rock, but before I even finished it I got tired of the cold and wind and the falling snow, so I headed on down to explore the crash-site meadow (which should be named Mooney Meadow). This time, I followed the creeks down to TL trail, and it paid off. I never got stuck in a canyon that I had to retreat out of, and it was a relatively scenic way to get to the trail.

Took the new lower TLT Eliot crossing. Snow was intermittent and light.

Overall, it was a pretty good day. There was the slight disappointment of not getting all the way to Coe, but I've poked around there a lot on previous hikes, so I doubt there's a lot to see up there. I'm obsessive though, so might go back someday. But other than that slight disappointment, it was a fun day. Weather was bad, but had the potential to be so much worse, so I know I lucked out. All the way down Cloudcap Road it rained, and part of the way down Hwy 35. I assume it was snowing up high, so I dodged that bullet. Not that snowy hiking is a bad thing, but steep off-trail terrain maybe isn't the best time for it.

Interesting comparison to the previous weekend on Newton Clark: sunny and warm, vs cold and windy and snowing, just a week apart. Gotta love that wacky mountain weather.

First set of pics is Eliot and east side of Langille.

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Pics from west Langille and Recession Lakes.

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Pics of Mooney Meadow

[retired jerry]

oh no, one of those obnoxious balloons

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And, of course...

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Damn, Jerry, do you get email alerts when a balloon pic is posted?

[retired jerry]

I waste too much time checking for balloon sightings

It's better than having to work for a living?

So, how do you get up the next ridge beyond the Eliot Moraine? I haven't been beyond there. That ridge looks difficult to get up.

[Chip Down]

So, how do you get up the next ridge beyond the Eliot Moraine? I haven't been beyond there. That ridge looks difficult to get up.

You mean Stranahan Ridge and Langille Crags to the west of Eliot Moraine? If you follow the moraine crest, it takes you to a trail that veers west and up until you end up at a snowfield in a little valley. From there it's an easy scramble/bushwhack up to the southern end of Langille. Or, if you eschew the trail and continue to the end of the moraine, you can scramble directly west, but it's a little trickier that way.

However, if you're asking about continuing up along the glacier towards Snowdome, then it's pretty much the same as above, but once you get to the gentle terrain just above Langille you just have to pick whatever route looks good. I recommend staying closer to Eliot. It's more scenic and also easier traveling, so all-around more fun than a westerly ascent.

[Peder]

I love that area! The white poles were standing up on the glacier a few years ago and I think they were used to measure its movement (there may even have been a discussion about it on this site).