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Sunrise over Citadel from our campsite
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View from our campsite (Jackson Glacier is above the water streaked slabs). The route starts just left of the waterfalls - you have to ascend the moraine. The moraines are big ridges of gravel but they are hard like cement...
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At the icefall on Blackfoot glacier, we crossed over the big gaping crevasse and walked carefully on the snow above.
The Edwards route via the rock ledges to the right did not make sense given the favourable snow travel.
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Past the crevasse, taking a quick break before traversing along the slope to gain the flatter terrain above the icefall.
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Above the icefall the glacier flattens out again
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Variable weather all morning! Started to rain and thunder shortly after we passed the waterfalls just above our campsite. After an initial bout of rain it got sunny again and we were off to the races... When almost at the summit (short 150 m) it started to rain/thunder again!!! After 20 minutes, the storms blew past us but it was quite the concern... Never good to be up high when there is the possibility of thunder / lightning.
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| Approaching the end of the snow |
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Summit
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Summit panorama. Prominent ridgeline peaks from left to right are Thompson and Jackson.
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| Dropping down and looking North towards Logan. You can see the Blackfoot glacier wrapping over the col to the Pumpelly Glacier. |
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Dropping down the glacier, that's Garland off the races
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Jackson glacier and Mount Jackson
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Navigating the end of the moraine feature, looking for an easier way down the hard packed gravel. Started at 7 and back at 3:30, so ~ 8.5 hours to summit Blackfoot and return to campsite.
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Lies, damn lies and beta:
* 1. Campsite: Recommended bivy site per summitpost... hike-in from the Going to the Sun road takes about 5 hours and covers 14 km.
The Jackson Glacier overlook trail peters out at an anticlimactic moraine / gravel feature just before the slabs below the glacier (great view, crappy underfoot!) At this point we were still up quite high and had to drop down to the valley below to our campsite. It is way easier to descend to the valley *before* the moraine feature rather than trying to descend the slabs or the hardpacked gravel on the edges of the moraine. We crossed the moraine and I took a fall when I stepped onto the slabs, thinking they were suitable for hiking. Not recommended.
Had envisioned a further bivy site at the base of Blackfoot glacier, but the moraines are quite complicated terrain to navigate quickly and this site below the slabs really is the best spot in terms of reasonable travel for a half day.
* 2. Route. The morning crux is ascending the moraine feature to get past the waterfalls, which is a grunt and unpleasant. Past there you are on almost on snow all the way to the summit. There were a few holes in the lower snowfields so take care. We roped up when we were on the glacier proper.
In terms of hazards there were some man eating crevasses that we had to hop accross. Also when you gain the glacier initially there is some hazard from above (the glacier is quite dirty from rockfall and there were some big snow-mushroom / serac-like features hanging on to the cliffs above).
We more or less followed the GPS route on peakbagger from Steve Sheriff. It is a good route but requires crossing a big crevasse on the dirty glacier and puts you in the line of fire from some junky hazard rock/snow fall from the cliffs above. At the point where you first gain the glacier and it is littered with rocks and gravel, you almost think that it is rock protruding from below the snow, but once you look in a crevasse you realize how deep the ice is at that point and that any intermittent rock/gravel is deposited from rockfall. The GPS data also shows them going straight up the waterfall from our campsite, which is obviously not what we followed.
References:
Route description and topo:https://www.summitpost.org/mountain/381092
GPS data: https://www.peakbagger.com/climber/ascent.aspx?aid=668742
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