Forum Index > Trip Reports > Wrangell St Elias NP 7 Pass Route August 2015
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Tom
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Tom
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PostThu Sep 10, 2015 8:40 pm 
Most pics are working now for me. Looks like a few pics got moved or deleted at flickr so they're not showing up when clicking on the thumbnail here. As far as the initial problems with the TR submitting properly - it was timing out while trying to grab all the captions from flickr. I put in blank captions for pics that don't have a caption (to speed things so it doesn't try to grab them from flickr) and it seems to be saving properly now.

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Kim Brown
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PostThu Sep 10, 2015 10:06 pm 
Spectacular photos and a very nice and interesting write-up. Thank you for sharing this. "kitty litter" geology. embarassedlaugh.gif up.gif

"..living on the east side of the Sierra world be ideal - except for harsher winters and the chance of apocalyptic fires burning the whole area." Bosterson, NWHiker's marketing expert
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Bman
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PostMon Sep 14, 2015 4:43 pm 
Thanks all. The first few days of posting this trip report I was messing around in Flickr, I'm new to that site too, I can see that some are still not available, I will see why this is so and what I can do about it. I did want to elaborate on the river....or really stream crossings. For the most part all of our water crossings were on mild creeks and streams, no real rivers are encountered on this trip (real river to me = 10 meter or greater width). A few things can make the above statement misguided, local weather conditions and route options. for the most part we were there during a "dry" spell, meaning little rain fall and so the creeks were by no means swollen. As for our route options, especially in the Monhan and next valley before the Tana Glacier crossing we tackled the streams up high where they were pretty manageable. One creek crossing I didn't even take my boots off, but waded through just fine, the other one in the unnamed valley before the Tana crossing I did change into my sandals, however the creek here was lazy, unrestricted and manageable. The route as described in the Wrangell St. Elias book suggests crossing at a much lower spot where the creek is much more restricted, and thus a fast flowing stream. other than that we were crossing any of the larger route rivers high up on the glaciers. One thought that Marc and I shared on this trip was what happens to this route when the glaciers recede past the current glacier crossing points when future travelers will not have ice to cross but fresh reaches of glacier rivers to negotiate? This route may very well change in difficulty.

Bryan
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Ski
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PostMon Sep 14, 2015 4:49 pm 
your awesome TRs and photos more than make up for the minor glitches with Flickr. (and you figured it out a hell of a lot faster than some of us did!) wink.gif dunno if I'd be wanting to ford streams up there in sandals, though... aren't most all the streams up there cloudy - full of glacial silt? not seeing the bottom makes me nervous, although I've forded pretty fast water in the pitch dark - spooky but do-able.

"I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each."
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drm
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drm
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PostMon Sep 14, 2015 9:07 pm 
I think August is after the bug season, which is June and July. I've done a couple of trips to Wrangell St. Eilias (my avatar is from the Skolai Valley) and I always went in August to avoid the bugs. But August is usually the wettest month up there. So you choose between wet and bugs. On my trip to the Skolai it rained every day (not all day though). Creeks usually are silty and you can't see the bottom. Trekking poles are really useful for testing what is ahead. I remember one that had 4 channels and only the last one was too deep to cross, so when I turned back, I had to recross the other freezing three ones. Frustrating, but that's how it can be there.

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Bman
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PostTue Sep 15, 2015 9:21 am 
OK I fixed the pictures and they should all be view able, I'm sorry not all of them are big as I thought they needed to be a smaller size at first for posting, but it is what it is. Yes, that is what I've heard in regards to the bugs, that August is post season; I reckon we got away with some great weather this trip considering. I would love to go back and do another trip.

Bryan
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drm
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PostTue Sep 15, 2015 1:07 pm 
Since both of my trips up there had a lot of rain, if I go back I'm inclined to base my trip out of one of the remote fly-in, free, first-come-first-serve cabins. I'll take my backpacking gear and what I do depends on the weather. There are quite a few of these cabins and I think that outside of the hunting season/areas, they are not heavily used. Since there are only a few pilots up there, they know if a cabin is being used and my last pilot said he would not fly people in to a cabin that was already being used.

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watergrl
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PostWed Mar 01, 2023 10:25 pm 
What will happen as those glaciers melt back more? There will be impassable rivers and the alder thickets will advance, at some point making this route difficult if not impossible. Look at what happened in Glacier Bay: upper Muir Inlet was a hiking paradise in the 1970s and into the 80s. Once the dryas laid down the nutrients for alder and cottonwood, those wide-open valleys filled with shrubs, then trees. All part of plant succession.

¨...finds tongues in trees, books in running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.”

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The Ghost of Bear 380
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PostFri Mar 03, 2023 3:52 pm 
This is incredible. Thank you for sharing!

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