No TR's yet : (
4/15/06
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
4/9/06 3:09pm
2882
2
No TR replies yet : (
I don't have a map in front of me, but I think Red Slate is ~13,200' high. Elevations have different meanings in CA vs WA, no?
Thanks for the report. Any estimate on how much longer Red will be in condition?
Its amazing how quickly one can become disoriented in bad weather. Nice job having the knowledge/emergency gear to survive the night and the presence of mind to get yourself out. Live and...
Stability was predictable - a foot or two of glop relatively smoothly bonded to the underlying snow. I kicked off a small slough on a steep (45 degreeish) rollover just below the N. Face notch.&...
That pic is incredible. Way to get it!
Way to get after it. Whitehorse has been floating up my list lately too. last 3 days on skis? Don't you have to work some time!?
I tried the exact same trip under similar conditions last year. The catwalk is crazier than one might expect. Hiking the PCT this summer, it appeared to me that a short distance S of the c...
About the winds - I haven't looked at any data, but most times I've been up there it has been blowing. I wouldn't be surprised if winds were stronger in the sisters because it sti...
Yeah, there was some minor brush scrapage which could have been avoided by driving through some sideways-tilting rocky sections. The main issue was rocky terrain though.
Yeah, we were about 6hrs up and 3 down. Taking the logging road trail up would probably shave 45min off the ascent. I'd say Dingford Creek might be faster if you include the extra tim...
In terms of driving, there was 1+ft of snow just past where we parked. It was continuous from there as far as I could tell, but I didn't walk down the road. There were tire tracks con...
I thought Big Snow was a seldom-climbed objective, but that doesn't seem to be the case this week. I was one of the skiers you met near the summit, Charles - it was nice to meet you, I'...
Thanks for the report, I've been waiting to hear the road is open! I have some questions though. Is your route the snow slope between Colchuck and Dragontail which (I think) is common...
Thanks for all the observations and hypotheses. The layer I found was definitely large rounded grains, not faceted crystals and although we were near the top of the ridge, the snowpack was quite...
Yeah, I guess I don't have any magic rule of thumb for separating wind slab from sun crust. I just noticed that the layer I'm calling sun crust was 1). never more than an inch or two deep, 2. On...
Thanks for the historical perspective, Lowell. In retrospect, I should have known the Catwalk would be trouble. I guess I had assumed we could bypass the blasted-slab section by climbing N...
Thanks for the report! Maybe this is a dumb question, but is it possible your 2" slab was really sun crust? On Saturday I traversed a lot of sun-exposed slopes that had a very cohesiv...
Sorry -PCT=Pacific Crest Trail. It'll be marked on any map of the area you get. The way you'll want to go right now is to start at the Commonwealth Basin/PCT trailhead (across I-90 from Su...