Glacier Travel in the Easter Sierra

Most of my experience with glacier travel has been in the Northern Cascades. I’ve done some snow travel in the Sierra, but not necessarily on the noted glaciers found on some of the topo maps.

Next weekend, my partner and I are headed up to Thousand Island Lake and we are hoping to summit Banner via the Northwest Glacier.

Now, here’s my question - do folks still rope up in this glacier terrain? Some folks I’ve asked said no, but when I hear glacier, I hear crevasse. I’ve tried to research Sierra glacier terrain but I’m not getting much.

Any insight would be helpful! 

Compared to what you’ve seen in the North Cascades, the glaciers in the Sierra won’t seem like glaciers. No  significant crevasses, though some bergschrunds might require a rope. 

Zachary

The glaciers in the Sierra today are just a shadow of what they were 40 years ago. Even then, most people did not rope up on them. Yes, there are schrunds here and there, but not many crevasses.

On the other hand, in the late 80s, my partner and I were descending (un-roped) Palisade Glacier and when I turned around my partner was gone. I heard some noise coming from a distance..

Found him and his pack wedged about 4 feet down a nice thin crevasse. 

But the kind of stuff you see on Rainier and such, that does not exists in the Sierra. The Banner glacier is tame, it's mostly a snow slope these days. Good luck on your trip.

Bob H. and Alois... hard to imagine how much combined knowledge these two have about this range.