It was a long way UP along the ridge, and where the ridge petered out, we were able to scramble down to the ice safely... Only to discover that the ice was extremely slick, and not at all flat. We picked our way along it as quickly as we could, working our way up to the top of the glacier where it flattened out. There were a lot of crevasses, unfortunately running perpendicular to our direction, and because it was so slick (and, dang, why don't we have crampons?!?), we had to stay well away from the crevasses, so we spent a long time threading our way across the glacier, moving as fast as we could. The sun kept setting and then rising again as we moved over and the mountain was lower in relation to the sun. We probably had five "goodbye, sun!" moments. I would strongly recommend against crossing a glacier at sunset. It's stressful.
We both took spectacular tumbles, but we did make it across. On the other side, we had to stay on the glacier right at the moraine edge, and essentially run down the glacier because it was so steep and slick that we couldn't walk without slipping. So we would run and occasionally run up onto the moraine to slow down a bit, using rocks to maintain some control along the way.
Eventually, we found a spot where we could make it up the moraine safely, and I spent a while saying my prayers and thanks that we had made it across without breaking any bones or ruining any joints. We found a reasonable spot for camping just about the time that it was getting too dark to hike safely, and made camp in the dark for the first time on the trip.
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