February 19-21, 2004, Mt Buckner NF

that looks like a blast. Happy birthday Corey.

Great photo's and trip report.

Now that's what skiing is all about...epic!

Thanks!

That sounds like a really fabulous trip.  I've long wondered how hard it would be to cross over onto (and return from) Boston Glacier.  To do it at this time of year is really reading conditions right.

Nice work! I wish I could've gone cause man it looks like you all had an adventure. I was sitting at work just dreaming of the time you were all having. Happy B-day man  ;D

yes!  very nice....I think there's something very primal about doing rad shit on your birthday.  way to go, Sky, Corey and Ross!

I'm green with envy.  >:(

Way to go, guys, and happy birthday, Corey!

Man, nice pics Sky.  Hopefully I'll have mine up pretty soon....
Anyway here's another perspective on the events...

Sky, Corey, and myself left Seattle butt-ass early on Thursday morning with plans to climb and ski the north face of Mt. Buckner. After a brief delay to discuss speed limits on hwy 20 with Trooper Joe, we were on our way up Cascade River Road. We were stopped by a large blowdown just past m.p. 18.
 One final gear organization, and we set off walking up the bare road. ~1/2 mile later we found continuous snow and were able to start skinning. The trip up the road was uninspiring as the views up to the peaks was obscured by low hanging couds. We left Cascade River Road just past Midas Creek. Skinned through open slopes and timber generally following near the creek until we broke above timberline. Here visibility began to become an issue. Solid white out conditions made the going a little slower than normal. But periodic clearings gave us glimpses of the route up towards the Quien Sabe Glacier. Up and around the moraine, and it was moderate slopes all the way up to near 8,000'. There the clouds broke and the peaks began to appear. Johannesburg, Forbidden, Eldorado, Boston, looking like islands floating in the clouds as the layer began to lower and break apart. We camped at ~8200' below a rock outcropping very close below Boston Peak.
 The next morning crystal clear skies greeted us and lifted spirits. After a leisurely breakfast and gear packing session we were off. Sky lead up the slopes towards the notch immediately S. of Boston Pk. that we were hoping to use to gain access to the Boston Glacier. Postholling was a pain, but it got worse as we entered the gully and encountered sloping slabby chossy crap covered by powdery, thin snowcover. Crampons were employed and a few tricky moves over a couple of rock steps led us to a steeper snow gully leading right for the notch. Sky was leading up and when he shouted "Holy Shit!, Holy Shit!" I thought that things had either gone really really bad,  or really really good. When he yelled again, "It's all good!", all questions were erased. The Boston Glacier reached right up to the notch where we were standing, and rolls endlessly away to the NE. To the E. was Buckner with the NF clearly in view. Man it looked sweet.
 With little time to enjoy the views we donned skis and enjoyed nearly 1500 v.f. of pure Boston Glacier pow. From our low point we put skins on and began climbing towards the face. And we kept climbing, skinning all the way to just past the bergschrund. There we strapped skis to packs and kick-stepped up the face. Climbing was straightforeward, and moderately steep. Highly enjoyable, with the Boston Glacier rolling away far below. Summited at 2:00, and enjoyed the views to peaks in all directions. The notch where we accessed the glacier looked so far away and our ski tracks down the glacier seemed insignificant on the mass of ice. With little time to linger Sky began the ski descent. He stopped a little ways down to shoot some pics of Corey and myself on the descent. The skiing was simply awesome. Wind buffed, soft, powder down the entire face from the summit. With shit-eating grins plastered to our faces, we found ourselves back at our skin track.
 Rested for a moment and enjoyed the sight of three sets of tracks snaking down the face.  Re-applied skins  and began the climb back up to the notch. At the notch we decided to rappel rather than deal with downclimbing, and although it took a bit longer, provided much more piece of mind. At camp we decided to spend the night rather than ski out in the dark. The next morning was another blue bird day and we packed camp and enjoyed ~3000' of fine buffed out powder before finding crusty conditions lower down in the forest. A quick ski out the road and back to the car. PBR's were cracked and swilled, and the outing came to an end.
~Ross

Looking NW from the summit of Buckner...

(waiting for a smaller version...)

Sounds like a great trip. I'm a little surprised that you headed up there right after a storm cycle when the avalanche danger was still considerable. Glad it all worked out though.

p.s. You might want to check out TAY's photo guidelines:

http://www.turns-all-year.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=tr0402;action=display;num=1075685222

We were kind of suprised how stable the snowpack was on the trip.  Everything was really well consolidated, with several inches of soft fluffy on top, but no hard layer or crust underneath.  For myself personally, the area that I had thought might be an issue, was higher up on the NF.  I had thought that with the southerly winds we had been having that week, that the upper sections of the face might be loaded.  However, as we found out, the face appeared to have been buffed out by the wind.  If anything we encountered a thin wind crust on the face, and really no wind loading.  It was kind of suprising to me.  So snow stability really worked in our favor for this trip, making for easy climbing up the face, and excellent conditions for the descent....
~Ross

Ok, there's some more photos up in the Ski Route Photos section...