Timberline / Around the Mtn Trail ?

[KingsMM]

I have heard that since the massive land side on mount hood that the timberline trail has a 4 mile section missing. Anyone done the trail sense the slide? I'm hoping to do it starting tommarrow. (I know this isn't a climbing post, but still seems alright to post it here.)

thanks,

Kip

[bobinc]

The problem is at Eliot Creek on the NE side. That section of trail (starting approx 2 miles W of Cloud Cap) had already been re- routed up onto the toe of the glacier several years ago. Last Nov., that work around also got washed out. You can make it up and around by going way up onto the west moraine above Eliot, going across, and then down the east moraine. Depending on how long your trip is, that may not be the greatest option so you could come out at Vista Ridge (but need to work out the shuttle and also use the Lost Lake approach vs the Tony Creek approach).

[ivan]

the part of the elliot washout i saw a couple of weeks ago from teh west side of the moraine made it look as if clawing your way up the east side of the washout would not be impossible - certainly nerve-wrackign, and best done in daylight most assuredly, but i definetly thought i saw a line - i'm assuming that the trail past there is okay and don't know if there's similiar destruction past that point that i couldn't see

[Sunnyside_up]

I just finished the loop today. Eliot now has ropes set and many people are using them.

 

Newton was easy for me, but maybe only because I did that one early in the day. And the Coe crossing required some balance work on two logs over the creek.

 

Sandy, Zig Zag, and Whiter River were all cake.

 

There's a sketchy washout (now rebuilt, but not anything you want to hang out on) just north of Ramona Falls. That part may actually be the most dangerous of the whole trail.

 

There's a thread here on the Eliot section:

http://portlandhikers.com/forums/thread/22469.aspx

 

Use your head and the whole thing is doable.

[KingsMM]

friend and i did most of the trail starting from cloud cap headed clockwise (towards timberline). We talked to many people that were not doing the whole trail due to the washout and 5 people who did do the whole thing. 3 of them went up on the glacier and 2 used the ropes. We made it to about 1 mile before the washout and started to make camp - just at that time we recived a message from my friend's parents saying that they "forbide" him from crossing the washed out area. Low on food and a wee bit tired we back tracked to elk cove and then took the 5 mile trail back to the Elk Cove trail head to meet his dad who had brought us a pizza. The day turned out to be about a 22 miles day! We neved did see the wash out. next time we won't tell the parents...

 

[Couloir]

Wow, that's A LOT of backtracking considering Cloud Cap was only about 2 miles from where you camped. If you made it that far, I would have ignored the parents and kept moving. How old is your friend, 12?

[bobinc]

Glad it more or less worked out, Kings.

 

ONe question: apparently the road to the Elk Cove TH is okay; I had heard the Laurence Lake Road had a washout. But I would be glad to be proven wrong... you guys came out at Elk Cove and not Vista Ridge, correct?

[KingsMM]

yea we came out elk cove TH.

[billbob]

Huckleberries are IN above Elk Cove, Vista Ridge trail. Ropes not needed.

[Billy]

For what its worth, I was up on the Eliot a couple of days ago, and it would be very possible to go up the West Morraine of the Eliot, drop down, and cross the very lower glacier, with out crampons, and go back up the ice climbers trail to the East Morraine of the Eliot. The only bummer would be the immense amount of scree getting down off the West Morraine. The lower glacier is really casual, hard with slots visible, but enough gravel and rocks to walk on.

[jport]

Nice work KingsMM! Keep posting your adventures!