Hood: 10 glaciers, 24 hours

[Chip Down]

It occurred to me that on Saturday I visited 4 Hood glaciers, and easily could have made it 5: Eliot, Coe, Langille (a named glacier, but stagnant), Snow Dome (clearly a glacier, although not named as such), + potentially Newton Clark with a little detour.

If I was the obsessive type ( ) I might wonder if I could set foot on 10 in 24 hours: Start at Timberline in the dark, hit Mississippi (not counting, because nobody else calls it a glacier), Zigzag (yes, still active), Reid, Coalman, White River, Palmer (kinda cheating, but I'm not counting Mississippi, and it's sometimes called Palmer Glacier). Could probably do all that in the dark, then drive to Cloudcap to bag the other 5.

I should be able to do the Timberline loop in 8 hours (I know, pathetic, but I have to pace myself and save energy, and I'm a fat old guy, and it's dark so I need to allow some wiggle room). That leaves 16 hours for the Cloudcap loop. Piece of cake. Oh, forgot about driving time. But should be no more than an hour from Timberline to Cloudcap, right? Also, it's not car-to-car times, it's first glacier to last glacier in 24 hrs, so that helps (stopwatch starts when I leave first glacier, stops when I arrive at last glacier).

Think you could do it? What would your strategy be? Think you could do all 13? (add Sandy, Ladd, Glisan)

[mjirving]

I touch all except Coalman on my High Route (but could detour up there...and not sure if I can actually touch Reid), but it’ll take me three days in a loop...might be able to do it in 24 but that would be crazy. Probably hour and a half to cloud cap? That’s a long windy road. Maybe an hour if you really push it?

[retired jerry]

Go up Yocum Ridge to maybe 7200 feet, traverse over a bit to Reid. I've seen a track straight up Reid to left of Illumination Rock. Maybe there's a way to do that without endangering yourself with crevasses.

Maybe that could be key to a high route or hitting all glaciers route.

[McCarter]

Not sure if Snowdome is clearly a glacier. It seems more like a snow covered ridge between two glaciers (Eloit and what was once the upper Languille or the Coe). Also, the "Mississippi" is just the melted out part of what was once the lower part of the Zigzag glacier which carved out the massive canyon below the Mississippi headwall.

I get that this is may be tedious, but it matters to some of us...

Without those it would definitely save time as you wouldn't need to get all the way up to Snowdome or down below the Mississippi headwall.

For me, the easiest/best way to hit all the glaciers is a ski traverse in the winter/spring!! Only need to park the car at T-line, seems reasonable within 24 hours.

[mjirving]

I watched a live presentation on the high ski traverse. They did it in 10 hours. It’s very high though and requires the perfect weather window during a short time in the winter.

[Chip Down]

Mike: That would be pretty cool if you could tag them all. Reid from the saddle is notoriously sketchy w/o snow, and Jerry's suggestion adds a bit of travel. Maybe not worth it.

McCarter: I'm comfortable saying Snowdome is a glacier by almost any sensible definition. But I'm pretty sure it's contiguous with Eliot/Coe at the top. The three of them are essentially one glacial system (think of them as three lobes of a superglacier). I don't know how geologists distinguish such things. I suppose it's as subjective and arbitrary as rivers, continents, mountains, etc.

Yeah, I get your point about Mississippi. The notion that an orphaned lobe of a shrinking glacier does/doesn't get categorized as a new glacier is an interesting discussion.

I get that this is may be tedious, but it matters to some of us...

Quite alright, I enjoy discussing such things with other glaciergeeks.

Without those it would definitely save time as you wouldn't need to get all the way up to Snowdome or down below the Mississippi headwall.

Oh, umm, I was actually thinking of a snowfield/glacier that's kind of around the upper reaches of MH on the east side. Pic below. Distinctive feature: Consistently (every year) flat around the top fringe, then abruptly plunges.

[mjirving]

This is probably well known, but these are the traditional glaciers. This info was tough to pin down so if anyone has more accurate info I’m happy to be proven wrong. The are ranked from largest to smallest.

Glacier Acre Sizes
A football field is 1.32 acres
Eliot: 395
Newton Clark: 345
Coe: 296
Sandy: 237
Zigzag: 190
Ladd: 165
Reid: 126
Palmer: 102 (0.8m long x [0.2m wide?])
White River: 101
Langille: 38 (0.3m long x [0.2m wide?])
Coalman: 20
Glisan: 10? (Very small)

[Chip Down]

I was shocked that Ladd was so large, but then remembered that I keep confusing Ladd and Glisan. Ladd is a really cool glacier up high (pun not intended), but doesn't get much respect, probably because it's somewhat amorphous, and the best views of it are in remote places.

Also surprised ZZ is so big, but it's hard to define, hard to look at it and really know where it begins/ends.

[McCarter]

The notion that an orphaned lobe of a shrinking glacier does/doesn't get categorized as a new glacier is an interesting discussion.

Makes me think of the Lathrope glacier on Thielsen which was identified in the 1960's. Clearly it was part of a single glacial system, but at discovery there were only 2 lobes. I am sure there are some guidelines out there. Definitely a fun thought exercise.

Did not expect the Ladd to be that large even though it is on the North side. I had no idea the Zigzag was bigger than the Reid.

I watched a live presentation on the high ski traverse. They did it in 10 hours. It’s very high though and requires the perfect weather window during a short time in the winter.

Could opt for a lower traverse in the spring with better conditions. Would be harder to technically "touch" all the glaciers as that would involve trying to tag "hanging" glaciers like the Ladd. That could lead to some unsavory downclimbing and subjecting yourself to lots of rockfall/icefall creating too much objective danger in my mind. Just wish my knees were up for a non-skiing Mt. Hood glacier extravaganza in a single push...but alas...

https://i2.wp.com/mountainlessons.com/w ... .09-pm.png

[Chip Down]

Just had to share my latest portrait of the lovely Mississippi "Glacier". Notice the crack about to open, right about where they do every summer.