The Coalman Glacier (also Coleman Glacier) is a

glacier A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...

located on the upper slopes of

Mount Hood Mount Hood, also known as Wy'east, is an active stratovolcano in the Cascade Range and is a member of the Cascade Volcanic Arc. It was formed by a subduction zone on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast and rests in the Pacific N ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

. It is the mountain's highest glacier ranging from about , located within the crater rim, southwest of the peak. It was named for Elija Coalman (variously spelled ''Elijah Coleman''), an early

mountain guide A mountain guide is a specially trained and experienced professional mountaineer who is certified by local authorities or mountain guide associations. They are considered to be high-level experts in mountaineering, and are hired to instruct or ...

who climbed

586 times. Coalman Glacier is the second most frequently visited glacier on the mountain because it is part of the popular South Climbing route from

Timberline Lodge Timberline Lodge is a mountain lodge on the south side of Mount Hood in Clackamas County, Oregon, United States, about east of Portland. Constructed from 1936 to 1938 by the Works Progress Administration, it was built and furnished by local art ...

. It lies entirely within

Mount Hood Wilderness The Mount Hood Wilderness is a protected wilderness area inside the Mount Hood National Forest, in the U.S. state of Oregon. The area, covering , includes the peak of Mount Hood and its upper slopes, and ranges from temperate rain forests at the ...

. The most well known feature of Coalman is the ''Hogsback'': a snow ridge running southwest to northeast from Crater Rock toward the summit ridge. The

Bergschrund A bergschrund (from the German for ''mountain cleft''; sometimes abbreviated in English to "schrund") is a crevasse that forms where moving glacier ice separates from the stagnant ice or firn above. It is often a serious obstacle for mountaineer ...

is another widely known feature where the glacier pulls away from the stagnant ice leaving a large

crevasse A crevasse is a deep crack that forms in a glacier or ice sheet. Crevasses form as a result of the movement and resulting stress associated with the shear stress generated when two semi-rigid pieces above a plastic substrate have different rate ...

. In 2007, it had become large enough to cause most climbers to use another route.Previous noticed posted at The glacier is a remnant of the massive glaciers that formed during the last

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages, and g ...

. It is historically known to change configuration dramatically, at times a gradual, smooth surface to Hot Rocks; at other times the same place has a 40 ft (12 m) ice cliff. The glacier flows southwest, and is bounded on the north and east by the summit, on the northwest by the rocky crater wall known as ''Castle Crags'' (also ''Hawkins Cliffs''), on the west by ''Hot Rocks'', and on southeast by the back side of ''Steel Cliff''.

Climate

Hawkins Ridge lies on the upper western edge of Coalman Glacier. There is no weather station, but this climate table contains

interpolated In the mathematical field of numerical analysis, interpolation is a type of estimation, a method of constructing (finding) new data points based on the range of a discrete set of known data points. In engineering and science, one often has a n ...

data.

References

Glaciers of Mount Hood Glaciers of Clackamas County, Oregon Glaciers of Hood River County, Oregon Mount Hood National Forest Glaciers of Oregon {{HoodRiverCountyOR-geo-stub

Climate

See also

References