December 7-8, 2002, El Glaciar Quien Sabe
12/7/02
3310
2
Quien Sabe Glacier - 12/7 and 12/8 2002
Greg M, Jeromy W, and I headed up to Boston Basin and had some late season ski conditions this past weekend. The road was goated at MP19, three miles from the Boston Basin TH. There is still a huge avy blow down about mid-way through the approach trail that takes some effort to pass with skis protruding from a pack. At the campsites just above the tree-line, there was almost no snow where the sun had shined, but some snow still clung to the north aspects of a lateral moraine.
The glacier itself was in late season conditions. None of the major crevasses appeared to be filled in, except one near the top which had some wind drift filling in over a snow bridge. From the Boston-Sahale col, there was maybe about 1cm of fresh snow over the sometimes bullet hard and slightly runnelled surface. The bullet hard snow made for an exciting traverse on steep slopes above a big yawner to bypass the summit schrunds. The snow softened somewhat as we descended and made for about 1000' of nice turns on wide open slopes. Things got pretty rocky towards the bottom, but it was possible to use the north facing slopes along the moraine to descend on snow to camp.
The nice weather on Sunday made for some really pleasant skiing despite the September-like conditions.
Greg M. posted a trip report on his website with a few pics: http://staff.washington.edu/gregm/quiensabetime.html
- Bill f
Bring on the new snow!
Greg M, Jeromy W, and I headed up to Boston Basin and had some late season ski conditions this past weekend. The road was goated at MP19, three miles from the Boston Basin TH. There is still a huge avy blow down about mid-way through the approach trail that takes some effort to pass with skis protruding from a pack. At the campsites just above the tree-line, there was almost no snow where the sun had shined, but some snow still clung to the north aspects of a lateral moraine.
The glacier itself was in late season conditions. None of the major crevasses appeared to be filled in, except one near the top which had some wind drift filling in over a snow bridge. From the Boston-Sahale col, there was maybe about 1cm of fresh snow over the sometimes bullet hard and slightly runnelled surface. The bullet hard snow made for an exciting traverse on steep slopes above a big yawner to bypass the summit schrunds. The snow softened somewhat as we descended and made for about 1000' of nice turns on wide open slopes. Things got pretty rocky towards the bottom, but it was possible to use the north facing slopes along the moraine to descend on snow to camp.
The nice weather on Sunday made for some really pleasant skiing despite the September-like conditions.
Greg M. posted a trip report on his website with a few pics: http://staff.washington.edu/gregm/quiensabetime.html
- Bill f
Bring on the new snow!
Nice report, Bill.
Thanks.
Thanks.
I second that, and I enjoyed the photos, too. The shot of the fog filling the eastern valleys is spectacular. And nice job on the panorama! Doing a good job splicing those together can take quite a bit of time, and that one looks like it used a lot of individual frames.
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