Climbing Coleman Deming Un-roped

Ebeam: that's truly an excellent post. Thank you. As someone who is often tempted to push the envelope on terrain like the C-D, your clear-eyed, detailed post is the kind of thing that keeps my ambition smartly in check. Thanks again.

Moats are definitely an underappreciated hazard.  The transition from snow to rock getting to the Stuart North Ridge notch is gripping.

What does this Hogsback moraine moat look like late Spring?

Thanks everyone for the highly informative and helpful exchange of ideas.

The "moat" discussion is especially interesting to me because although I've been to Baker only on the Easton & Squak for Grant & Sherman (respectively), that "moat" looks very similar (both visually and in terms of mechanics) to the "crevasses" in Mt Washington's Tuckerman Ravine back East.
We all know they're not really crevasses (since the last glaciers here melted out a few thousand years ago), but "glide crack" doesn't quite seem apt either, especially since they represent a far different hazard that glide avalanches. And they're also far larger than the summer glide cracks I've seen on Muir. So "moat" seems a more apt term.

Fortunately the . . . moats, holes, cracks, crevasses, whatever they are . . . appear with such regularity, and fortunately the ravine is so carefully scrutinized, that of what I think are the only four people to go into any of them the past couple decades, three people were glissading having absolutely no idea what they were doing, and the most recent fatality was even worse.

Also, IIRC, don't some of the kind of "ancillary" routes dropping west from Pan Point develop moats?
I think that is where the 1999 snowboarder was found (in 2001):
www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Snowboar...after-he-1060360.php
More details here (though interspersed in a much longer article):
www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/...vs--the-Volcano.html

Great info in this thread, thanks everyone.

Curious to hear some TAY opinions on descent safety. I'm planning to head up there next weekend, trying to figure out whether we'll be able to ski the whole descent or need to rope up and boot parts of it. Anybody have advice for this time of year, or beta on current conditions?

What does this Hogsback moraine moat look like late Spring?

Others may have a better picture, but here is one from May 13, 2006. The moat area is in the gully on the right, in a line between the rock showing and the bottom of her backpack. It is very mellow terrain when filled with snow.

Mapwise, it is located here: www.hillmap.com/m/ag1zfmhpbGxtYXAtaGRychALEghTYXZlZE1hcBilrSUM . You can see the hogsback trail in the satellite image located about 50 meters to the east. Also, you can see the moat potential (numerous short cliffs with mostly meadow) in the vicinity that Lowell was talking about.

My point isn’t to make the CD route sound exceedingly dangerous or like it is some epic climb. It isn’t. But neither is it some little side country jaunt. Other than offering some specifics about the glaciers and drawing specific attention to moat hazards, my point is to: 1) make thinking about safety second nature (e.g., constantly read the terrain/conditions, be thinking of your options/exits, etc.), 2) have the right equipment, and 3) know how to use it.

To emphasize this last point I offer these last two pictures from a trip in Sept 2008 (photos courtesy of Tim Terpstra). Before we all get too critical of this father/son team, think about all the stupid things we have done … probably knowing better too. And, in case you are wondering - they turned around on the lower part of the Roman Wall and made it out safely. I think quite a few people kindly (and not so kindly) encouraged that course of action.

Safe travels to everyone.

Father/son team just above Pumice Ridge (Sept 2008) photos by Tim Terpstra