Continued from the previous page . . .

A WHITE WINTER WONDERLAND ALL YEAR LONG

Not everyone on the trail seemed as mesmerized by the ice field as I did, however.

Seven people signed the ice field trail register before me this morning. Since the trail is out and back I saw all of them either ascending or descending. I talked briefly with several of them.

I passed six hikers on the way up. All looked younger than me. A young man, probably in his 20s, was ahead of all of us. He was the first one who came down, going by me about a mile from the top:

Four young folks passed me about three miles from the top and one young man (below arrow) caught up to me just before I reached the top:

He looked around briefly and left:

 

Those six 20-somthings were the first to reach the top this morning.

None of them apparently stayed very long. They had all turned around and begun their descent before I got up there, which surprised me. Why not stay longer, do a little exploring, enjoy the awesome scenery after all the effort to get up there?

I'm sure they had their reasons.

Whatever they were, it worked to my benefit. I was the seventh person up the trail to the ice field this morning and I had the place to myself for almost 40 minutes until the ranger-led group (and perhaps some of the six hikers I had passed on the ascent) appeared in the distance.

PANORAMA FROM THE EDGE OF THE ICE FIELD

I spent the time wandering around the rocks and snow – taking pictures of my surroundings and a mountain goat – with no one else there.

These photos pan clockwise from the snow bowl north of the rocks where I was standing, to the ice field west and south of me, and then to the top of Exit Glacier and the valley to the east:

 

 

 

 

 

The arrow shows the top of Exit Glacier, one of about 40 glaciers flowing out of the Harding Icefield.

 

I think most of this plateau is covered in snow year-round, as is the ice field.

It would be interesting to climb the peaks to the north of this spot to see farther over the ice field. Although they are hard to see in the photo below, there are several orange flags leading to the slope shown in the photo below:

There was too much un-trampled snow for me to try that today. I'd done enough post-holing already.

I walked south a hundred yards to another rocky overlook, where I was able to get close to a lone mountain goat munching away at the green grass that has popped up this spring:

 

 

 

 

 

Here's one last look at the ice field toward the south. I didn't go any farther in that direction:

In the photos directly above and below, note the bluish ice in the center. That is the top of Exit Glacier peeking out. It flows down to the left.

And another look west across the ice field:

Cool!

Cool indeed. It was windy and cold at the top. Maybe that's why the youngsters left so fast. I was dressed in enough warm layers that I was comfortable.

A ranger warned me yesterday that it’s almost always windy and often 30 degrees F. colder on top than down in the valley because of all the ice -- nature's freezer! I don’t think it was that bad today but when my fingers started getting cold, I decided it was time to descend. I had two pairs of gloves and a fleece hat if I’d needed them, but I never put them on.

Continued on the next page . . . the descent, final comments, and an update on the missing Mt. Marathon runner 

Happy trails,

Sue
"Runtrails & Company" - Sue Norwood, Jim O'Neil, and Cody the ultra Lab

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© 2012 Sue Norwood and Jim O'Neil