Two Weeks in Glacier. I8SumPie (That’s Dirty)

[Jay w]

Pete, yeah, glad you caught the egg complaint. I talked to the bar manager from Many Glacier and he said NPS has a policy that burgers must be cooked well done, so that explains the burgers too.

Todd, there's only so much that can go in a report. So far, I skipped over swapping music CDs with a stranger in a gas station in Fargo (pretty cool interaction), singing to John Fogerty that was playing way too loud on the drive out, and downloading pictures in the lobby of the Swiftcurrent Motel.

Jen, I want to se a video of that laughing.

Farmgirl...the gathering has had bad timing or our timing has been bad compared to the gathering. We did make it to a birthday party of (I believe) MarxMN. We met a number of chatters. The "That's Dirty" reference is coming up near the end of my trip report. (One of the last days at Many Glacier.)

Ok, time to head upstairs to the computer iwth the big monitor to work on a trip report.

Jay w

[Jay w]

7/24/11

Thank you and welcome to day 4 of our inebriational tour of Glacier. (This is not to be confused with the urinational tour.)

Sunrise Roulette, Part II
This morning was another attempt at sunrise photos.


(21mm)


(24-105mm)


(24-105mm)



(21mm)


(Stitch with 70-200mm)


(70-200mm)

Shangri-La
On today’s docket was Shangri-La. Julie Joy would round the bases in normal order (1st base: Ptarmegan Falls, 2nd base: Iceberg Lake), and I’d run the bases backwards (3rd base: Shangri-La) and then meet Julie at 2nd base and take the normal trail home.

I’ve done this hike before so no problem with finding the route. I headed down Swiftcurrent trail, went whistling past the turnoff even though I was looking for it, and a wall appeared on my right. Nice wall, but this ain’t right, Betsy. I turned around and the people I passed were asking if my hike was over.

The start of Shang hike is a nice uphill trek through prime grizzly territory. I didn’t bring my bear spray because I hadn’t read the directions yet. (Note to self, read directions.) I made it up to a point, pulled out the camera with my new manual focus lens and tried to take a picture. I tend to forget that I can’t see anymore, so I pulled out the reading glasses and still couldn’t focus the lens. I really need to install that new focusing screen. (Note to self, install focusing screen.)


Eyes don't fail me now. (21mm)

The next obstacle was a stream crossing, and after staring at that for a couple minutes, I simply waded through without my boots. As I was drying off my feet, I noticed some mining equipment that I hadn’t seen during the last hike. Hmmm, I haven’t heard anyone mention mining in this area.


Mining equipment? (24-105mm)

Ok, the cliffs. After telling Pocketlint that a particular crevice on the left side was the route up, I proceeded to climb that notch and made a nifty little move that got myself into a position where I’m hanging by two hand holds and two toe holds with nowhere to go. It then occurs to me that I’ve taken the wrong route. I look down and think that the ledge 12 feet down will stop my momentum before I hit the next ledge another 15 feet down. Note to self: don’t panic. You can do this. Actually, I started shaking a bit before I slowly down climbed this little notch. Ok, Doc, that wasn’t too smart.


(21 mm)


(21 mm)

About 20 feet to the left was the correct notch, which was much easier to climb. Note to self, you don’t know this route.


Looking down on the route up. (24-105)

The Shangri-La route up to Iceberg Lake takes you through a little basin that offers some serenity from the normally crowded hike up to Iceberg. Probably the highlight of the hike is the view coming into Iceberg Lake. Just before hitting that point, I had to hike around a snowfield and noticed a group of maybe 25 people in front of me that were on the other side of that field. I guess the serenity is over. It actually surprised me to see a group that big since it looked like a number of them would have a lot of difficulty with any climbing.

The Reward


Yawn. (21mm)


(Stitch with 21mm)

After about 30 minutes of photography on top, I headed down the scree field and then boot skied down a snowfield to the lake. I was wearing a pair of skiing gloves which protected my hands from getting cut up by the snow during the boot ski, and that little detail impressed the other folks still negotiating the snowfield.


(21mm)


(70-200mm)

Grizzly Exhibition
On the trail hike back from Iceberg, we were just a little late for the grizzly exhibition. About a quarter mile from the lake, a sow and three cubs were hanging out on the snow, cooling off, and they put on quite a show. A cub was pulling and chewing on mom’s ear and it looked like mom was barely tolerating it. Due to the pain, she started moving toward the tugging, which sent the two of them sliding 20 feet down the hill to where the other cubs had previously tumbled. It looked like the crowds on either side of the snowfield would be able start hiking when mom and then cubs started hiking uphill.


(24-105mm)


(24-105mm)


(24-105mm)


(24-105mm)


(24-105mm)

An impatient hiker started hiking towards us, which spooked one of the cubs to run at us. The group on our side started yelling at the guy, and when the bears were barely above the trail, that guy came walking through. I got in his face, “You spooked one of the cubs, which ran at us and then the sow ran at us.” No response and so I repeated it. He said, “What can you do.” “Wait,” I said. Maybe I should have started with the greeting, “Are you trying to get us killed.”


(24-105mm)

Better stop for tonight.

Jay W

[tibber]

such great stuff, your reports and all. Thx so much for sharing it.

The grizzly pics are pumpkin unbelievable . You should post the photos on the Glacier National Park Facebook page. Those who follow that page would take great joy in seeing those pics.

[Tiz]

Awesome bear pics (also taking into account the relatively short length of the zoom lens).

Moreover, I like the iceberg lake picture very much (IMG 3616).

[mtjana]

Amazing photos... I so enjoyed them... Stunning!!!

[toddnick]

Great bear pictures!!!!

[Farmgirl]

Great bear pictures!!!!

AGREED!

[llholmes1948]

Great photos and great report. I believe many people on the Chat would like to hire you to ghostwrite their trip reports for them.

Lyman

[Jay w]

The reports take forever to put together. The photo editing, uploading, putting it all together into a post, it's time consuming. So no trip report for tonight.

You may be interested in this I took in 2009:




Jay

[Jen]

Understood.

I spent an hour with photobucket and the page this morning only to have my PC crash and I had to start all over

My 10 year old PC hates photobucket.

[Farmgirl]

Understood.

I spent an hour with photobucket and the page this morning only to have my PC crash and I had to start all over

My 10 year old PC hates photobucket.

Blah, Blah, Blah....

[Jay w]

No one bit on the "gallery" shot. There's a web site out there where you can load your photos into the background. It's called photofunia, so I was having a little photo funs.

Here's a couple more with photos from 2009





Jen, my condonlances on the death of post.

Jay

[Jay w]

7/25/11 (Monday) A Collage of Ideas

A Man Amongst Men
Pretty much each night, the routine has been shower, eat, download pictures, and have a drink. Of course the drink can occur before, during or after any of those three. For the people that know Many Glacier, it’s worth checking out stall three as it always seems to have remaining time, regardless of men’s or women’s. (I.e. don’t plug a token.) My problem was forgetting my towel a couple times. It’s another kind of roulette this time, a nude roulette, getting to the paper towels without the door opening.

A Few Good Men
Julie ran into the neighbors, who were experienced climbers from Minnesota. (I mentioned the Holister’s while recapping Altyn (7/23/11).) Their plan for today was to climb Iceberg Notch and then Apasha. I thought the Notch was enough for a day, but I guess not. I asked Keith, “So is snow a problem.” “No, there should be a gap between the wall and the snow.” I mentioned that I might be interested in going along to just watch and take pictures, and then Julie said, “You should go with them.” Keith was laid back probably would have taken me as a project, but all I could think of was Jack Nicholson yelling out, “You can’t handle the notch.” Keith told a story about a young woman he brought up there that didn’t follow his directions and fell like a rag doll ledge-to-ledge. She didn’t break anything, but did get airlifted out.

Man is That Stupid
In the local paper (forget which one), I was reading about the Blackfeet exploring for oil and the idea was to use fracking to remove the oil/natural gas if it’s found.



I don’t know much about the exploration plans or if they’re finding reserves, but I do know that fracking is a really, really bad thing to occur almost anywhere. High levels of salts dissolve in the chemicals they pump in the ground (aka pollution) such as strontium, bromium, and barium, and then these dissolved solids get dumped somewhere, most likely a lake or river. Here’s a podcast (or transcript) of what’s going on in Pennsylvania. We observed what looked like test wells being drilled along Many Glacier road just after leaving the park. (Kind of provocative.) I’ll leave it there so this thread doesn’t get bumped to the political thread, but I am interested if we were seeing test wells and if they’re finding anything. (PM me.)

A very scary podcast:

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-a ... me-changer

The Photo Backpack
There’s been some discussion here about photo backpacks, and since I’m in the mode writing up stuff, I figured I’d throw in some info on what I did this year. Here’s the backpack:



It’s a simple old Kelty that is barely long enough for my trunk. (That’s the key for carrying weight on the hips.) On the right are two tripods: The heavy a$$ one (Gitzo 1227) and the light one (Benro C-027). Both were bought before the drastic price increases. Either one can slide a leg or two between the right pocket and the main backpack. This holds the tripod pretty securely, but I’ll probably add larger strap for durability.



Inside the backpack I have a camera case (C00894) from Photobackpacker.com that attaches by Velcro to a backer board. This setup keeps the camera case off the bottom of the pack. (I stuff a rain jacket and clothes into that space.) Underneath the camera case I attach whatever lenses I feel like hauling that day. Shown on the left is a lens pouch that’ll hold something fairly large (like a 24-105 or 17-40). The two on the right are holding old Nikon AIS lenses (28 and 55) that I was testing by using an adapter. Each pouch has Velcro on the bottom and sides to hold it in place.



Inside the camera case (zips shut) is the camera and a spot for a telephoto lens. The divider was also purchased from Photobackpacker.com When I’m going light, the lens is replaced with a water filter. The front pouches hold various filters, cards, batteries. Food, water and other essentials are stuffed where they fit.

I have no connection to phtobackpacker.com, but I did go to the guy’s house to fit my gear. Nice guy and very helpful. The stuff is very nice and there are a lot of different options. Most of the products were originally developed for large format gear, but it works well for 35mm.

Get on With the Damn Hike Already
Ok, today’s bear scat tour of Glacier presents Avalanche Lake.

After having dinner with a couple from California, showering, downloading pictures in the lobby of Swiftcurrent, and showing the bear pictures around, we got to sleep after dark. Consequently, we got up after light.

The plan was for a hike up Grinnell just as far as we damn well felt like going, kind of a day off. We drove to the trailhead (go ahead and insult us), and as we readied our packs, it started to sprinkle…then rain. Screw it. “I think it’s raining over the snowpack, let’s head for Mother of Jesus Lake.”


The required Swiftcurrent shot on the way out at 8:30 am. (21mm)

The drive to St. Mary turned into a drive to Avalanche, one of our favorite areas to spot fairies and gnomes. There was road construction on the west side of Logan, which offered a chance to get out of the car and take a few snaps.


I don’t know my peaks, but I think this is Oberlin and Bearhat. (24-105mm)

The parking around Avalanche was non-existent, but we got lucky and a spot opened up. What to bring for photo gear…oh he11, bring it all. After getting to the first


Avalanche Creek. (55mm micro)


Avalanche Creek (70-200mm)

vantange point, I ran back to the car and swapped the small tripod for the large. In some ways, I felt bad running because I was passing a person in a wheel chain with an oxygen tank and some others moving at ten to the minus four miles an hour.

A bit further up the trail is the bouncy bridge. If the kids are having a slow day, just send them across the bridge. I didn’t set up a tripod since it would create a traffic jam and I could absorb the bridge’s bounce.


Avalanche Creek (21mm)


Avalanche Creek (21mm)

So we just kept meandering towards Avalanche Lake with a stop here and there for photos.


Avalanche Creek (70-200mm)


A large landscaping rock. (55mm micro)


A leaf (handheld). (55mm micro.)

At the lake, I shot a number of photos and recorded a video. I’ll try to load up the video software and get to the video at some point, but not today.


Avalanche Lake (21mm)

On the drive back to Many Glacier, the water was like glass outside the entrance, but the winds were fairly strong near the hotel. I’m not sure if the winds just picked up, or if there was some micro-weather going on.


Lake Sherburne (21mm)


Log (70-200mm)

Finally, we came across a bear in the same field that Todd was shooting photos back on the 23rd. (Notice the water in the background is pretty choppy.)


Bear (70-200mm)

Ipasha
We met up with the MN neighbors and of course, I wanted to hear the story about climbing the Notch and Ipasha. Well, it rained and rained, so they had lunch on a ledge before the heavy lifting began. Then it rained some more, so they bagged the climb and did some practice self arresting with the ice axes. Unfortunately, Kirsten kept sliding even though her technique looked pretty good. She cut up a hand pretty good. Not “let’s get some medical attention” good, but good enough that it’ll hurt for a few weeks. So she was wearing the bandage of an adverturous hike.

Belly up to the bar for tomorrow’s hike.

Jay W

[Jay w]

I mentioned the Holister’s

That should be Hollister's. There's a few other typos not worth correcting.

Jay

[tibber]

but I think this is Oberlin and Bearhat.

I think Bearhat is Mt Clements above the Visitors Center at Logan Pass.

As usual, I enjoyed your writing and photos very much. Loved the photo of Lake Sherburne.

We were coming down the Swiftucurrent Pass Trail this day. Weather was off and on the entire way but what an awesome hike.