Clemenceau Icefields - Front Range Magazine

Day Five - Move Camp From Tusk Glacier to Clemenceau Glacier

Yard sale in front of Mt. Clemenceau. No customers, so I guess we have to carry all this stuff for the next three days...

Time to sleep in, eat everything in sight, pack up camp and start heading out. It's Wednesday morning, and the schedule dictates that we leave. The first thing we do is spread out all of the wet gear to dry, then start on the power breakfast. Who brought the bacon and eggs? Oh well, I guess it's oatmeal again...

Everybody is very bagged from yesterday's 17 hours up on Clemenceau, and we rather leisurely pack up camp with lots of loafing and sun tanning.

The goal for the day is to walk down the Tusk glacier, cross Duplicate glacier and moraines, and then get about half-way up the Clemenceau glacier, back to at least the same elevation as our current camp. Nothing too stressful.

The day starts off with scattered clouds, then clouds in and becomes overcast and snowing on and off, which should be OK for traveling. The route we're taking goes down the Tusk glacier, then crosses the Duplicate glacier below the Duplicate-Tusk icefall before climbing up the Clemenceau glacier. The three glaciers come together and flow into a single valley below the east face of Clemenceau.

A cute little mill hole - still don't want to fall into it, though.

The Tusk glacier is only lightly crevassed, but full of mill holes, which are drilled by streams that flow down the glacier and then carve a hole straight down, often right to bedrock. The smallest one was about 50cm across and too deep to see the bottom, and the larger ones were several meters in diameter - they are fascinating features, but very dangerous since they are so deep.

Late in the summer, they often hold the last pockets of snow, while the rest of the glacier is free of snow - the rule is to just avoid any snow patches and walk on the bare ice. That way you know that you're standing on solid ground.

The edge of Clemenceau glacier, where we moved onto the bedrock and then onto the lateral moraine. The rock is covered with glacier-polish scars as well as channels eroded by streams that had flowed under the ice.


Crossing the Duplicate glacier, with Tusk Peak and the Duplicate-Tusk icefall in the background.	After living on a glacier for a few days it's nice to see green again - this is moss growing on the moraine at the edge of the Clemenceau glacier.

After about 6 hours of walking we're half way up the Clemenceau glacier. We're all tired and ready to make camp - just have to find a decent spot.

We set up camp on a snowfield next to the lateral moraine. It's a beautiful spot, sheltered by the moraine, with great views of the east face of Clemenceau and north face of Duplicate mountain.

Fire up the stoves, it's time to eat!