I am looking to do the CMC route on Mount Moran with two friends in early July this summer. We have a very extensive expedition planned (a few summits and a traverse through the Northern Cascades before we reach the Tetons), and money is pretty tight at this point. If we have to, we'll do the hike (bushwack) around Leigh Lake, but if anyone knows of somewhere close by that rents canoes for far cheaper than the $75-85/day prices I've seen so far I'd love to hear about it. Also, if some kind soul is in the area and happens to have a canoe they won't be using for a few days, we'd be more than happy to trade some money for the usage of the canoe during our trip.

I don't know about canoe availability, but the 'schwack around the north side of Leigh is not as bad as rumor has it. If you're coming from the North Cascades, you will have been sufficiently inoculated. Also, if you hike in to the CMC, you can pack over and quickly descend the Skillet Glacier instead of downclimbing or rapping the CMC.

seano wrote:I don't know about canoe availability, but the 'schwack around the north side of Leigh is not as bad as rumor has it. If you're coming from the North Cascades, you will have been sufficiently inoculated. Also, if you hike in to the CMC, you can pack over and quickly descend the Skillet Glacier instead of downclimbing or rapping the CMC.

I haven't heard anything about descending the Skillet. Could you elaborate a little more?

The Skillet drops more or less east toward Jackson Lake. There is sometimes a 'schrund where it flattens, but it's not crevasse-y, and after the initial steep chute, you can usually glissade the lower part. From there, a sometimes hard-to-follow use trail leads from the northern edge of its valley to Bearpaw Bay, where you can pick up the trail back to String Lake.