I was just wondering, is there any reason why one couldn't hike up to Perley Rock, then cross the glacier, and descend via the Glacier Crest trail? Judging from photos I've seen it seems the glacier would be completely dry on the bottom half so traversing should be pretty straight forward with some microspikes. How difficult would it be to regain the Glacier Crest trail once on the other side?

I haven't done it, as I generally stay off glaciers, but in looking over the terrain from the top, I think you can ascend to the saddle between Glacier Crest and Lookout Mtn without too much difficulty. A route should be obvious from the Perley Rock side.

Cool thanks, is there any reason you stay off glaciers? Is there a danger I'm not aware of? Obviously not talking about some super crevassed icefall with seracs that can fall off at any moment.. but on a flat dry glacier with a few crevasses here and there, it's pretty straightforward walking

There are more crevasses on the Illecillewaet than you probably realise. You are going to need to cross about 1km of glacier as the crow flies and more if you have to deviate around slots and other terrain features. If I am walking a km or more on a glacier, especially on a route I haven't done before I'd be at least taking glacier travel gear and assessing when on scene. At a absolute minimum you should have a proper ice axe and crampons rather than micro spikes.

From the sound of your questions and responses and I'm going to guess that you haven't done much glacier travel before - if not be safe and go up there with a buddy who has.

It may be possible to walk around the bottom of the ice as it has receded quite a bit in recent years, I don't know for sure.

I don't have pics showing the actual lobe of the Illecillewaet that you are referring to, but these will give you an idea of what it is like just upstream of this. All taken late August 2011.



Descending off Macoun looking NW across Illecillewaet


Illecillewaet from the Perley Rock area


Illecillewaet from one of the Terminal Peaks

When I hear glacier travel and microspikes in the same sentence i think Russian roulette.
Lack of respect for glaciers and mountains can lead to some tragic results.
Go prepared and do some research about your route for as happy ending. I have not done this route myself.

I don't know about skirting around the base either - there's a huge meltwater creek draining the glacier (excuse the mugshot):
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mkanda...57637468955544
and
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mkanda...57637468955544

However, when we did the Great Glacier trail last year, it did look straightforward to turn that into a loop by continuing up to the Lookout col and then down Glacier Crest:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mkanda...57637468955544

I can confirm this route is doable with a little off trail travel as I have done just that about 10 years ago.

Sorry but what is the danger of travelling on a dry glacier? Perhaps I'm just not getting it. Obviously if you're in heavily crevassed, uneven terrain with seracs it's one thing. But if you travel across a relatively flat and featureless part of the glacier, all you have to do is avoid walking into a hole in the ground.. which is not terrible difficult.

I've walked across a fair amount of glaciers in the alps, in many cases there's even cairns to mark the way in poor visibility. Most people don't even use microspikes and just walk in hiking boots with trekking poles. If one were to encounter an impasse, then wouldn't you just turn around?

As long as the glacier is bare ice, i see no problem in crossing it solo. Any strips of snow left should be avoided(obvious)and as long you are not walking along and looking up at the sky or with your eyes closed, i don't see any chance of falling into a crevasse or millwell.


Depending on the angle of the glacier and how much imbedded rock there is on it,you can obviously get away without crampons, but I personally would bring them just incase....not microspikes.

..and yes, you would just go along until you happened to reach your limit(impasse), you just have to be able to recognize that.

Or you step/hop/jump over it, if it's not too wide, and keep going. Now there's some degree of risk, depending on what your personal definition of "too wide" is. The trouble is there's considerable overlap between the ranges "I can jump across" and "I could fall in and die".

Not sure what you mean by a dry glacier? They are all melting and you just can`t see whats happening under the surface, with water flowing and holes. Its easy to avoid walking into a hole if its visible, but no so much if it is covered.
I personally know of a B.C. Parks Ranger who was walking across a glacier, which he was very familiar with, snow, and ended up falling into a hole, up to his armpits, buddy he was with had to help him get out of it.
On solid ice you would think it would be safer then on snow sections, but you have to be aware.
I`m always somewhat leary about crossing even snow fields,and you can hear water flowing under them, who knows how much of a top crust you have.
I have crossed a number of glacier solo, but I do realize what can happen.

glacier solo is all good until you need help...

Yes but as has been stated a couple of times in this thread, we're talking about dry/bare glacier where the snow has melted completely for the summer and it's bare ice, all crevasses are visible. Many times there are huge swaths of glacier one can cross which has no crevasses or easily avoidable ones.