Please read Glaciers I Have Known – Part 1 before continuing with this segment.

In Part 1, I showed you photos of glaciers that were in BC, Alberta, Yukon and the Cascades. I spent a lot of time on them because there are just so many good examples there. Now I’ll continue with more of the same.

Previously, I showed you a picture taken at Lake Louise, Alberta. This one was taken some years later, and the clearer day shows the Victoria Glacier much better.

If you drive the Icefields Parkway, you’ll get some good views of the Crowfoot Glacier.

Here’s another view of the same glacier, showing the upper part. The texture is quite different from the previous picture.

At the Columbia Icefields, this late September view shows the Snow Dome Glacier creeping down the steep mountainside. Notice the glacier atop the peaks on the left, hundreds of feet thick.

The highest peak in Garibaldi Provincial Park is Wedge Mountain. This is an ultra-prominence summit and boy, are there some nice glaciers there. It took me until 1974 to climb Wedge, after failed tries in the 1960s. I climbed it by the long west ridge, which is free of glaciers. These are some of the photos I took on that climb in mid-August. This first one shows the glacier to the west of the neighboring peak known as Mount Weart.

Here, we see the west part of the Weart Icefield.

Here’s a look down to the Weart Icefield.

In this next shot, we are looking southeast past the Spearhead Range. Much ice.

In this next one, we see the Spearhead Range in front, and the Fitzsimmons Range in the distance behind.

Here’s a good view of the Weart Glacier.

During my descent, I had this look back up the west side of Wedge.

In 1977, I returned with Brian Rundle and we climbed Wedge together. It was the end of August, and once again there were excellent glacier views. Here, we see the north side. We ascended the left-hand skyline. The famous Northwest Arète is the sharply-defined sinuous snow ridge winding its way up on the right side of the photo in bright sunlight.

On the north side of the peak can be seen what is called Lesser Wedge.

Here’s a view of the northeast side of Wedge with the broken glacier.

As we descended Wedge, we got the bright idea that maybe we should also climb Mt. Weart (elevation 9,301 feet) on the same outing, so we did. Normally just a climb of Wedge by itself is considered a big day, but to add Weart on the same day – well, that’s pretty crazy. By the time we were done and back down to camp, it was getting dark and we were punchy from the effort. From the Wedge-Weart divide at 8,500 feet, we had this view west down to the lake (we were camped at the far end).

Here’s a pretty good view from Weart, looking southeast across the Weart Glacier.

The next morning, we had this sunrise view of the glacier at the end of Wedgemount Lake. It calves icebergs right into the lake.

Millions of people drive past Mount Shasta in northern California each year. From a distance, it’s hard to tell that there are 7 glaciers on the mountain – they are fairly small and mostly shrinking.

In 1975, I paid a visit to Mt. Breakenridge, a somewhat remote peak in British Columbia. I traversed the peak and discovered that it was quite glaciated in places. Traveling in such terrain is fine if you’re roped up with a partner, but going solo is like rolling the dice. Falling into a crevasse can be a death sentence if you’re alone. In any case, I saw some good glaciers. Here, we are looking southeast across a part of the Breakenridge Icefield towards the summit. The time is mid-August, and the gentle slopes ahead are not likely to hide too many crevasses.

To the southeast of the summit, I found a good-size glacier which I had to descend.

There were a few tricky spots.

There was some very broken ground.

That climb was done 50 years ago – hard to believe now! I’d venture to say that the ice shown in the previous 3 photos has shrunk considerably.

Also in 1975, I paid my first visit to Mt. Rainier. Didn’t make it to the summit, but I ended up with some good glacier photos nevertheless. Look at this next photo – it shows how a glacier can become quite broken as it travels over steep or rough ground.

This next photo shows that crevasses can be huge and create a major obstacle to travel.

Here we see an icefall on the Ingraham Glacier. Features like this can be hundreds of feet high.

Here’s a close-up of a detail on a glacier.

Next is a view of an icefall on the Ingraham Glacier. Those towers are called seracs. They can fall without notice, making travel across such terrain very dangerous. Many climbers have died in places like this one.

Here is a view looking west up the Upper Ingraham Glacier, with plenty of broken ground.

In this view, we are looking north across more ice. Mt. Rainier is a great place to visit if you want to see plenty of glaciers in all their glory.

Also in 1975, I visited Skihist Mountain, another ultra-prominence peak. Although not itself glaciated, the mountainous terrain nearby is heavily glaciated. Here, we are looking southwest from the summit.

This view is to the south – lots more ice. If you look carefully, about a third of the way in from the left on the horizon can be seen Mt. Baker, a full 100 miles distant.

The year 1976 put me atop many fine peaks. One of them was called Canadian Border Peak, from which I had this excellent view. The big peak in the center distance is Mt. Baker. The closer one on the right is Mt. Tomyhoi, draped in its icefield.

A peak I had eyed for years was Mt. Garibaldi, found in Garibaldi Provincial Park to the north of Vancouver. Here’s a nice view from the north.

In mid-July of 1976, I seized the opportunity to do a traverse from Diamond Head, over the peak, and finish at the north end of Garibaldi Lake, then down the trail to the highway. This mountain has glaciers galore and I can’t wait to share some of my photos with you.

At the old Diamond Head Lodge, a park warden joined me for the climb (quite unplanned). We did the whole thing unroped, which probably wasn’t the smartest idea given the miles of glacial terrain we covered. We made it to the summit okay (elevation 8,786 feet), and from there had this terrific view over miles and miles of glaciers. The rest of the trip would take us over some of it.

We carefully dropped off the summit on its northeast side over some tricky ground.

I love how the light later in the day makes the whole scene glow.

This next shot has us looking southeast up the Sentinel Glacier.

Here’s the Desert Mountaineer at the hut we found, used by glaciologists but always unlocked so others could use it. I didn’t know I had ever been so skinny – ah, the good old days.

After a night spent at the hut, we walked along the shore of Garibaldi Lake for a while and had this view of Castle Towers Mountain. In March of 1978, Brian Rundle and I would do the first winter ascent of the peak.

From farther along the lake, I had this view back southeast to Guard Mountain and the Sentinel Glacier.

Also in 1976, I spent some time exploring around Grainger Peak in the Chehalis area of BC. I never did find a way to the top that I felt comfortable doing by myself, but I got some good views from the peak. Here’s a view looking south along a ridge towards what would be later known as Nursery Peak. In this mid-September view, we can see part of a glacier on the steep slope down to the left.

From high up on the west side of Grainger I had this view looking steeply down onto a glacier with some open crevasses.

I was fortunate to make a trip to Mexico in 1976 to climb a couple of the big volcanoes. The first was Popocatépetl (elevation 17,694 feet). On the summit, I noticed that the heat from the crater warmed the ground enough to melt the glacier back from the edge.

This next photo shows more of the crater’s edge and its depth. In recent years, in fact since 2005, the volcano has been closed to the public because of regular exhalations, explosions and emissions of gas. The crater is 1,500 feet deep.

On the same trip, I was able to visit Orizaba, the highest peak in Mexico. More properly known as Citlaltépetl, it is 18,491 feet in elevation. I met up with 4 men from the USA and we climbed the peak together. We climbed the most popular route via the Jamapa Glacier. From our bivi site at 15,400 feet, we had this evening view of our route above,

The next morning we set out and were soon on the glacier. As you can see, it is mostly free of crevasses. No need to rope up here.

This view looking down also shows an absence of crevasses.

At the rim of the crater on the summit, we found nieves penitentes. This feature happens when ice goes through the process of ablation, where it evaporates directly from the solid state without ever melting to water first.

During our descent, I looked back up the glacier. A few crevasses can be seen but were easily avoided.

In October of the same year, I climbed Mt. Ratney in the Chehalis area. On its north side, I found this small glacier. In all likelihood, it has long since melted away due to global warming.

Wow, that’s the end of this episode, Folks. Stay tuned for Glaciers I Have Known – Part 3. There’s lots more good stuff to come.