[radagastly]

It is curious that the pass of the Gladden Fields was not even mentioned in the discussion of alternate routes once the Redhorn had defeated them. I don't own Fonstad's Atlas, however the fold-out map from my edition of Fellowship shows a rocky spur or outcropping westward from the Misty Mountains opposite the Gladden Fields. In "The Ring Goes South," I found this brief description:

Yet steadily the mountains were drawing nearer. South of Rivendell they rose ever higher, and bent westwards; and about the feet of the main range there was tumbled an ever wider land of bleak hills, and deep valleys filled with turbulent waters. Paths were few and winding, and led them often only to the edge of some sheer fall, or down into treacherous swamps.

This seems to correspond in the text to the western side of the source of the Gladden River. It occurs just prior to their passage through Hollin. Perhaps it was considered too difficult a passage for the hobbits to manage. And of course in Hollin they observed the crebain from Fangorn and Dunland, "Hollin is no longer wholesome for us; it is being watched." said Aragorn. They may have feared passing back through that country to reach the Gladden pass. Still it's curious that it wasn't at least mentioned.

As for using the High Pass, they may have feared it being snowed under that far north, as well as leaving them exposed between the mountains and Dol Guldur for at least a hundred and fifty miles as they journeyed south to Lorien. The east side of the mountains had not been explored by Elronds scouts before the Ring set out from Rivendell. There was no way to know whether it would be a safe journey.

Did Gandalf want to pass through Moria? If so, why?

From "A Journey in the Dark":

"There is a way that we may attempt," said Gandalf. " I thought from the beginning, when first I considered this journey, that we should try it. But it is not a pleasant way, and I have not spoken of it to the Company before. Aragorn was against it, until the pass over the mountains had at least been tried."

Clearly it was Gandalf's idea from the start, and the strategy is sound. Disappear underground for a while, and emerge just miles from the safety of Lorien.

But of course, there is a bigger "why?" Did Gandalf sense or guess what awaited him in Moria? Clearly, Aragorn did:

It is not of the Ring, nor of us others that I am thinking now, but of you, Gandalf. And I say to you; if you pass the doors of Moria, beware!"

"Over the bridge!" cried Gandalf, recalling his strength. "Fly! This is a foe beyond any of you. I must hold the narrow way. Fly!"

Whether Gandalf knew his fate or not at this point is difficult to say. Did he suspect it before entering Moria? At the West-gate he tells Boromir:

"And," he added, with a glint in his eyes under their bristling brows, "you may ask what is the use of my deeds when they are proved useless."

Unfortunately, Gandalf is such a secretive individual that it's difficult to find any clues as to what he knew or suspected or mused about. Elrond had this to say to Frodo, a week before they left Rivendell:

I can foresee very little of your road; and how your task is to be achieved I do not know. The Shadow has crept now to the feet of the Mountains, and draws nigh even to the borders of the Greyflood; and under the Shadow all is dark to me.

and a paragraph later:

"With you and your faithful servant, Gandalf will go; for this shall be his great task, and maybe the end of his labours."

I don't think Elrond was speaking prophetically here, or at least that he believed he was. It seems more foreshadowing of some unseen doom on the part of the author than anything else.

I need to go study The Two Towers. Maybe Gandalf the White can offer some insight into Gandalf the Grey's motives.