Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Glaciers in Whitney Zone

Looking at a Tom Harrison map of the Whitney Zone there seems to be over half dozen small glaciers scattered about in the Zone. Looks like there is a hanging glacier just below Keeler Needle. I'll be running MR in Ocotber and thought I might wander over to that glacier and poke around. Anybody been on it? If so, how steep is it? Can you ascend with crampons and an ice ax without putting in rope? Pleae advise.

The following photos should help you out. They were taken Aug 16 of last year. The third photo is a fairly close shot. I've not been on them but would think right now and into October they'd probably be fairly hard and icy.

<a href="http://www.rickkent.net/ViewerPlus/viewphoto.asp?ID=15944">Photo 1</a>
<a href="http://www.rickkent.net/ViewerPlus/viewphoto.asp?ID=15946">Photo 2</a>
<a href="http://www.rickkent.net/ViewerPlus/viewphoto.asp?ID=15952">Photo 3</a>

-Rick

Off the topic of glaciers, but on the topic of ice: the flow from the outlet at Barney/Girl Scout Lake starts to freeze up nicely mid to late October. You'd want to have a rope with you for this slope, though.

Thank you Rick Kent for supplying the photos. They clearly show what the Tom Harris and other maps indicate as glaciers. They look fairly climbable and unless they are not too icy I would venture that crampons, ice axe, and the knowledge of how to use them would be all you need to climb them. If they are hard to climb because they are too icy early in the day then try a few hours later after the warmer daytime temperatures have had a chance to soften them up.

On a technical note, these are not true glaciers. They are holdover snowfields. If the weather were to turn colder for many years and the amount of snow that accumulated was great enough and deep enough to compress the bottom layers into ice such that gravity would cause it to begin to flow then they would be glaciers. A glacier is more or less solid ice created by the compression of accumulated snow. It is not technically correct to refer to the permanent snowfields as glaciers. However, if we were to enter a period of sustained colder weather these snowfields would likely be the birthing grounds of true glaciers.

Like SpankyBob said, there are not real glaciers but the snowfields. Here is another picture from area between TC and Pinacle Ridge taken in late June this Year. Mt. Whitney is on the far right behind Pinacle Ridge.



Area above Clyde Meadow is interesting in winter with ice falls, where these two climbers practice ice climbing. Go only with experienced winter/ice climber!



take care.