Day 18 – Sept 17 – Down to the toe of the glacier

We knew this would be a difficult day, since it reversed the route down the moraine that we had disliked on Day 10.

To make matters worse, it began snowing again as we packed our camp and continued to snow all day. Although it melted for the most part and didn't make the trail particularly slippery, it was unpleasant and cold, especially for Marcia.

Perhaps because of the snow, we kept moving and made it down in under five hours, much less than we had spent going up.

Also, our guide listened to my complaints about the rockfall dangers of the most difficult stretch and chose a different safer route that took us down across the toe of the glacier. This was good, because the rain and snow had loosened the slope so badly that it would have been a constant rain of rocks falling from high above. We called it the “bowling alley” and admired it from a distance.

Just before we arrived in our camp, we saw an impressive slide on the opposite slope. Along with a lot of rocks and dirt, a full-size fir tree came tumbling down the slope and cracked in two. Nature is powerful.

We spent the afternoon in our tent trying to stay as dry as possible in the continuing rain and wet snow.

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