Inter Glacier

Nice day trip up the Inter Glacier to Steamboat Prow yesterday. No snow until the toe of the quickly receding glacier. I imagine it won't be many years before the glacier recedes past the current constriction rock bands making accessing the Inter glacier later in the season more difficult. Some bare ice and minor crevasses open. Snow was a bit dirty and suncupped but the high freezing levels kept it reasonably soft. Linking some rock strewn snow patches at the bottom allowed me to get about 2700' vert...not bad for August. Flowers in Glacier Basin past peak, but some nice lupin along the trail.

I was curious about when you could actually see a glacier in Glacier Basin and found this to be a worthwhile skim: Mining Glacier Basin History of the Glacier Basin Mining District.

I knew there was some mining activity in the area but had no idea the level of infrastructure that was once up there. The cover photo from 1915 gives you an idea of how quickly the Inter Glacier has receded, sad that it will probably disappear in my lifetime.