BETA PHOTO: Overflow, right side, viewed from the snow slope a...
Description
Overflow is a broad ice apron on the lower east face of Thatchtop Mountain, about 200 yards south of Jewel Lake and maybe 100 yards west of the Glacier Gorge Trail. The area is very secluded and is difficult to see from the trail. This year (2007/2008) the ice is very good and somewhat more extensive than when it was first climbed in 1977. Though not very tall (70 to 80 feet) the curtain is maybe 200 feet wide and offers 4 or 5 interesting lines of ascent. The routes are not too challenging, mostly WI3 M0, but are great fun. To escape from the top, wallow down steep snow to the south or rappel from trees.
Getting There
Begin from the Glacier Gorge parking area and don show shoes or skis as necessary. Follow the line of the summer trail to the Shortcut, but don’t take the Shortcut. Turn right (west) and follow an unnamed drainage (usually tracked) until it is easy to veer south and gain the main trail near the Loch Vale Trail junction. Proceed west and take all the left branches in the trail. Follow the general line of the summer trail to the log bridge across Glacier Creek, stay right and follow the creek to Mills Lake. Head south across the frozen lake (normally safe until May) and continue across Jewel Lake, beyond which the valley bottom can be followed all the way to Black Lake. Look for a large boulder on the left side of the trail maybe 100 yards past Jewel Lake. Go straight west over/around windfall and across Glacier Creek. The ice flow will be obvious about 200 feet above the creek.
Fun area, though it looks like it might lie at the bottom of an avalanche run. Has not been recent activity as there are big trees at the top, but above it lie tiny trees.
Eli Helmuth calls this Jewel Lake Ice on his website, I haven't heard it called "Overflow" before. Is this a historic name or should we change this area name to Jewel Lake Ice with routes of Overflow Left and Overflow Right?
I am not fussy about the name, but I do know the source of the name Overflow. Ralph Baldwin, Time Hogan and myself were skiing in to Black Lake to climb what is now known as the West Gully, December, 1977. I caught a hint of the ice through the trees (Overflow that is) and said, "Hey, let's check this out." So we did. I led the pitch up the thick ice in the middle of the flow and brought up Tim and Ralph. We rapped off and on our way to Black Lake came up with name Overflow for the whole feature. See ROCK AND ICE CLIMBING, RMNP, THE HIGH PEAKS (1997), page 176. I have since then soloed all the obvious lines (some repeatedly because they are really fun) and given them the following names (I am not fussy about these names either):
1. Cave WI3+ Begin at a cave beside a left-facing dihedral near the left side of the ice apron. Climb icicles past the right (or left) side of the cave and continue up easier ice to the top of the flow. Look for slings around a tree and lower off.
2. Thin WI4 Start above a big tree near the middle of the wall. Climb very thin ice over a rock slab to a conspicuous bush. Continue more easily to the top of the flow.
3. Center WI3 FA: R. Rossiter, Ralph Baldwin, and Tim Hogan, 1977. Climb thick ice up the middle of the flow and rappel from a tree.
4. Tommy Knockers WI3+ The right side of the flow is steeper and thinner and develops a dull orange cast perhaps from minerals seeping out of the Earth.
5. Thinner WI4 To the right of Tommy Knockers the ice is even thinner.
BTW, we did climb the beautiful West Gully route in a snow storm the next day. I do not know who first climbed it. Duncan Ferguson, Dakers Gowans, Pete Metcalf or the like would be good candidates. I also do not know the origin of the name West Gully. I had only seen the climb a month earlier having gone into Black Lake to climb the ice on the southeast side of the lake, already a known destination in 1977.
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