Help - Timberline Trail Elliot Creek Crossing need location

[jamesaiv]

Awesome thanks Todd this data will be very helpful!!

Getting excited as the big trip is about a Month away.

[todd149084]

It's one of my favorites, and even though it's not really that remote, always makes me feel like I'm a million miles away from the world.

I'm doing the wonderland trail sept 9-16, and this is just a warmup for that one... looking forward to both of them.. I love intermediate to high mileage days, ending with a great meal and scotch in front of a fire.

[jamesaiv]

Here is my trip report from when I hiked the Goat Rocks up near Rainer back in 2007. I was going to do the TT back then but they had that big washout the winter before so we switched to this hike which turned out to be very cool. It was my first really long (5 day) trip and was pretty difficult. Old Snowy Mtn was a nice little challenge and it seems some of the views on this TT hike should be similar:

Enjoy
http://adventuroustales.blogspot.com/20 ... state.html

[pschastain]

Looks like you got the info you need. We didn't make it across Elliot Creek - perhaps we bit off somewhat more than we could chew. Took us longer than expected to get to Cloud Cap - more snow along the high parts of the trail then we anticipated, plus a late start (I forgot my boots in town - d'oh!). Got some great photos, though. Next time we'll be better prepared. Anyways, good luck with it.

-Peter

[joerunner]

Looks like you got the info you need. We didn't make it across Elliot Creek - perhaps we bit off somewhat more than we could chew. Took us longer than expected to get to Cloud Cap - more snow along the high parts of the trail then we anticipated, plus a late start (I forgot my boots in town - d'oh!). Got some great photos, though. Next time we'll be better prepared. Anyways, good luck with it.

-Peter

What was your plan and what turned you around? I'm heading up there tomorrow.

[Ganj]

Looks like you got the info you need. We didn't make it across Elliot Creek - perhaps we bit off somewhat more than we could chew. Took us longer than expected to get to Cloud Cap - more snow along the high parts of the trail then we anticipated, plus a late start (I forgot my boots in town - d'oh!). Got some great photos, though. Next time we'll be better prepared. Anyways, good luck with it.

-Peter

My buddy and I plan on running the Timberline Trail this Saturday. Were you travelling CW or CCW and how bad was the snow?

Thanks for the information.

Jason

[todd149084]

I don't have a lot of time for a long trip report ( I'll try to do one later this week ) but here's the latest dope on Elliot Creek Crossing ( as of 8/7/10)


If you are approaching Clockwise, the trail will end at a trail closure sign.. walk 20 feet to the edge of the cliff and look over. Then, turn around, go back to the sign and follow the trail directly up the hill.

If you climb up about 200-300 ft, you'll see a very steep section ( about 40-50Degrees ) of canyon wall that you can slide down on your butt or just carefully climb down. It looks worse than it is.

Yellow Poly rope is there, but I wouldn't trust my weight to it ( although my 200lb friend did a body rappel using it )

stream crossing isn't any worse than any of the others.. hop from rock to rock, wade through, or just do what we did and head up a few hundred feet and cross using a snow bridge ( I don't recommend this later in the season ).

We then climbed up the other side of the canyon.. using trekking poles and sometimes pulling myself up with my hands.

It's a bitch, but not a problem for someone in good shape and confident of their scrambling skills.

Then, instead of climbing down to cloud cap, we just took the climbers trail to the shelter on cooper spur, ate lunch, and then walked to Newton springs for our last night.

Summary: If you are in good shape, not too afraid of heights, and confident in your scrambling skills, there is nothing to keep you from crossing. As we get through august and into September, the river will be even less of an issue.

I've attached a few pics.. you can see me sitting down and enjoying the view, as my good friend Donovan rappels down the fraying poly line, and amazingly enough, didn't fall to his death.

good luck, and use lots of common sense (unlike my friend who rappelled with that fraying rope )

[Ganj]

Thanks for adding the photos. We will be going CCW this Saturday and wonder if it will be doable to climb UP what you guys rappelled down. We plan on entering the drainage coming from the Cooper Spur shelter but then must decide if we either:

#1 Head downstream and look upwards for the yellow rope
-OR-
#2 Stay high and move straight across drainage until we gain that ridgeline on the west side of the Eliot.

Between us we have some experience and a sense of adventure. I feel like this won't be as big of a deal to us on Saturday as it feels like right now.

Thanks for the help!

Jason

[Guy]

A (younger, fitter & faster) friend of mine ran the loop last Saturday! Going anti clockwise they crossed lower down apparently there is an old rope there. They then climbed up the other side angling up the slope towards the mountain. They did the whole loop in 12 hours! If you have a facebook account you may be able to see his photos here:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?ai ... =738988627

[todd149084]

going CCW will probably be easier, at least from a direction finding standpoint.

Start high on the trail at the shelter on cooper spur... DONT head downhill toward cloud cap, but rather head up a few hundred feet and cross the canyond there... the river is lower and easier to cross, and the angle of the canyon is less. You can climb up to the opposing ridge and just bushwack down about 300 or so feet until you find a very well established and steep trail that will take you down about 200-300 feet to the TT.

This is easily doable if you're fit and have basic scrambling skills.

ps.. never trust your body weight to any of those ropes you see... they're going to break on someone at some point and you don't want it to be you.

good luck and have a blast.