Crossing Eliot Glacier (safely)

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rainrunner
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Re: Crossing Eliot Glacier (safely)

Post by rainrunner » August 23rd, 2012, 4:07 pm

Peder - I sure could use a map of those coordinates.
The mountains are calling and I must go.
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adamschneider
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Re: Crossing Eliot Glacier (safely)

Post by adamschneider » August 23rd, 2012, 4:16 pm

rainrunner wrote:I sure could use a map of those coordinates.
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Peder
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Re: Crossing Eliot Glacier (safely)

Post by Peder » August 23rd, 2012, 5:17 pm

Thanks Adam! :)
Some people are really fit at eighty; thankfully I still have many years to get into shape…

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rainrunner
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Re: Crossing Eliot Glacier (safely)

Post by rainrunner » August 24th, 2012, 10:21 am

Thx Peder and Adam for the map info, it was really helpful.

We are heading out soon and will only have to worry about hood to coast runners today.
We plan on crossing that area tomorrow.
The mountains are calling and I must go.
John Muir

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retired jerry
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Re: Crossing Eliot Glacier (safely)

Post by retired jerry » August 25th, 2012, 6:30 am

I did the "too loose and pretty steep", or maybe it was the "too damn steep" and I agree, not good

If you go to the left of your marked areas, up the snow slope, and then higher up on the ridge above your marked areas, I think that's best.

It's easy to go up that ridge on the West side of Eliot way higher. Any where you can get up onto that ridge will work.

I also crossed the glacier once and felt uneasy about the crevasses. Definitely against the rule of using rope when on glacier, but I thought all the crevasses were visible. That was much further to the left.

I've also used the ropes and didn't like that, but that might be the best.

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rainrunner
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Re: Crossing Eliot Glacier (safely)

Post by rainrunner » August 28th, 2012, 7:37 pm

Thanks everyone for your replies to my questions.

We decided to take the glacier route and made it safely.
After the ropes at Newton Creek, we decided long descents on ropes were not in our plans.
The glacier route takes longer, but we felt it suited our safety comfort zone.

Below is the route we took. The only bare snow we walked on was the small snow patch right below the west side crest. There was a lot of rock scrambling and some funky dirt to walk through, but this route was very doable for us. The closest we got to a crevasses was about 50 feet away and it wasn't uncomfortable.
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The knife edge of the west moraine was nerve racking especially when we saw the dust cloud from a rock fall as we started our way down.
Image

There were a couple of Timberline Loop in-a-Day hikers who climbed down the climbers trail with us on the east side and then scaled the west side moraine across from it (too loose and pretty steep in Adam's diagrammed photo). They made it to the top, but there were some very large boulders directly above them.
The mountains are calling and I must go.
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adamschneider
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Re: Crossing Eliot Glacier (safely)

Post by adamschneider » August 28th, 2012, 10:20 pm

rainrunner wrote:Below is the route we took. The only bare snow we walked on was the small snow patch right below the west side crest. There was a lot of rock scrambling and some funky dirt to walk through, but this route was very doable for us.
I've added your route (as best as I could figure out) to my map as the brown line labeled "lower 2": http://adamschneider.net/misc/forums/El ... ssing.html

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Re: Crossing Eliot Glacier (safely)

Post by Thunder Thigh 3 » August 30th, 2012, 8:32 pm

Adam and all - just wanted to say thanks for posting this and for all the chiming in of ideas and 'how we did it' posts. Super helpful! My mom is doing a one day circumnavigation tomorrow (Friday) and we were checking out the lay of the land up from Cloud Cap. With our short scout trip, and all this information, I think she's ready the rock the show! She'll probably take about the same route as 'rainrunner' and I'll have her post something here if she has anything to add. If anybody is up there tomorrow, say hello to Thunder Thigh 1 and give her a big cheer!

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Re: Crossing Eliot Glacier (safely)

Post by BCJ » September 1st, 2012, 3:52 pm

Thunder Thigh 3 wrote:Adam and all - just wanted to say thanks for posting this and for all the chiming in of ideas and 'how we did it' posts. Super helpful! My mom is doing a one day circumnavigation tomorrow (Friday) and we were checking out the lay of the land up from Cloud Cap. With our short scout trip, and all this information, I think she's ready the rock the show! She'll probably take about the same route as 'rainrunner' and I'll have her post something here if she has anything to add. If anybody is up there tomorrow, say hello to Thunder Thigh 1 and give her a big cheer!
I saw your mom yesterday on the crossing and I took the same route that she did (going the opposite direction). We all went much the same route that Adam posted, but went under that rock band along the rocks on the snow. Very doable and not too scary if you have trekking poles (which I didn't). The footing was generally good and there wasn't anything too difficult at all about it.

On another note, I hope your mom made it back safely...I saw her again below Paradise Park and it looked like they were going to have a long way to go in the dark back to Top Spur. That Muddy Fork crossing would have not been fun in the dark (crossing is easy; it's finding the trail in the dark that could be interesting.

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Re: Crossing Eliot Glacier (safely)

Post by Thunder Thigh 3 » September 1st, 2012, 8:27 pm

BCJ wrote:I saw your mom yesterday on the crossing and I took the same route that she did (going the opposite direction). We all went much the same route that Adam posted, but went under that rock band along the rocks on the snow. Very doable and not too scary if you have trekking poles (which I didn't). The footing was generally good and there wasn't anything too difficult at all about it.

On another note, I hope your mom made it back safely...I saw her again below Paradise Park and it looked like they were going to have a long way to go in the dark back to Top Spur. That Muddy Fork crossing would have not been fun in the dark (crossing is easy; it's finding the trail in the dark that could be interesting.
Yes, she made it out safe and sound! I joined them for the last bit (Paradise Park and out to Top Spur) - yes the muddy fork was tricky - not crossing, but finding the trail. We were thankful to have the moon in addition to the headlamps. We got to the car at 12:30. Were you the runner at the Eliot crossing? My dad and I may have briefly met you. Glad you made it around too!

Thanks again to all for the route help!

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