Glacier Climb - Mount Hinman/Hinman Glacier

This climb was technically easy, but the millage on trail made for a long trip. We started hiking at 7:30 AM on Saturday. The first 5 miles are flat but there was a fair amount if stinging nettle. From there the trail starts gaining elevation. There are a lot of places to filter water, so we each carried one bottle and refilled on breaks. We went for a swim in Jade lake and we did have to walk through knee deep water to follow the trail. The bugs got a lot worse when we got closer to the lakes. The couloir to get to La Bohn gap is steep at the top. It was snow covered and we used ice axes and crampons, some students may want a rope and protection. A fall on this slope could be fatal because you would hit rock. We went up the left side and this seemed to be the easiest way. We got to La Bohn Lakes and made camp at 4:30 PM.

The next morning we left camp at 3:30 and started up the talus steps to a snow field. We put crampons on once we got to the snow and students had the opportunity to scramble a couple of easy rock steps with crampons on. From there we continued up to about 6,500 ft and roped up. We weren’t on the glacier yet, but the slopes we were traversing were steep and we placed pickets and did a running belay past a couple of sections. It was easy going to the summit where after we took a few pictures we crawled into a moat to get away from the wind while we ate. Time to summit was 3 hours. We got back to camp at 9:45 and left camp at 11:00. Coming down the steep couloir was a little sketchy and progress was slow. The more experienced team members helped students on crampon technique. At the bottom of the snow field we took a quick break before heading out. We filtered water two more times on the way out and got back to the car just before 7:00 pm. This was a great trip, but the glacier travel was very short and you could easily skip the glacier if you wanted.