Glacier peak, chocolate glacier

[JoshK]

Has anybody climbed GP from this side? From arieal photos, it almost looks like going straight up chocolate creek might be the most reasonable approach from the suittale river trail, rather than whacking through the forest. I can't tell from the picture but it looks like the river bed is an old volcanic mud flow or something. It looks fairly flat. Anybody have a guess?

 

[Beck]

Josh, there are old treads going up to Dusty Wedge or Rusk Basin on either side of chocolate creek. Plus Suiattle River Bridge is gone, you'll be swimming to cross the river if you wanted to go in via the suiattle river trailhead. Try the Buck Creek approach this year.

[JoshK]

Yeah, the buck creek approach is the way I would go...I was up there the other day. But you still have to cross the suittale at some point, right? I can't imagine wading across would be safe, or even possible. The rivers in the area were flowing really fast the other day, and I have to imagine the suiattle is bigger than any I saw...

[dberdinka]

Where does one find these satellite/aerial photos????

[ashw_justin]

terraserver... or for the more civilized, USA Photomaps:

 

http://jdmcox.com/

[JoshK]

Download USAPhotomaps. It will probably be the best thing you've ever seen I now have nearly all the north cascades cached so I can scroll amongst the arieal photos.

[mvs]

Holy cow USAPHOTOMAPS is awesome!!

[JoshK]

Yeah, USAPhotomaps may be the best piece of software I've seen a long time! The slow fade between photos and topos is sweet!

[mvs]

That guy will get a check from me, really nice work. Have you tried incorporating elevation data so you can see contour lines overlayed?