Ptarmigan Traverse

[steve-o]

Anybody know how doable the Ptarmigan would be in mid-August. Any major crevasee/moat issues? Thanks in advance.

[MarkMcJizzy]

I think that it is imposssible in August, especially when the weather is nice.

[AlpineK]

Any major crevasee/moat issues?

 

 

No problem with the crevases or moats. You may have issues with the goats though.

[KAB]

Besides those wonderful goats, you'll probably have a hell of a time bushwacking down the downey or bachelor creek drainage to the main trail (I forget which drainage it ends at...)

 

Kevin

[RichardKorry]

I've done it in Mid-August in a slightly higher than normal snow year in 1997. I would guess that this year would have similar conditions.

 

We encountered no crevasse problems. We only roped up once on the Le Conte to get around one crevasse. Otherwise everything was filled in. We did witness two large ice fall/avalanches. The first was traversing over to get onto the Le Conte. A house size chunk of snow slid off slabs high above our traverse and came down about 100 yds in front of use. Yikes! The second was on our approach to Dome from Itswoot Ridge. This was the size of subdivision and we were about 1/4 mi away. The ice chunks in this one were quite impressive.

 

We went in on Sunday night and came out Fri afternoon and only saw people Mon AM and Friday PM. We hit lots of bugs at most of the campsites.

 

In 1997 someone had done some major pruning in the Bachelor Creek drainage so the trail was OK. You don't want to get lost as the whacking is very slow through the 2 miles of slide alder.

 

It's an awesome trip that I'd be happy to do many more times.

[still_climbin]

I've also done the Traverse in mid-August. We met several parties retreating after two days in fairly heavy snow storm. We, on the other hand had great weather and the glaciers were in good shape. The only hard spot was crossing the LeConte Glacier which had several long cravasses that blocked the way. We had to climb a 15 foot verticle ice wall from a collapsed section of one the cravasses to get through. That just made it more fun.

 

Have a good trip.