Flett Glacier - climb snow, ski ice

Very hazy but pleasant day up and above Spray Park. Fall colors are just beginning to show and the berries are plentiful and delicious.

My hope was to have some nice alpine ice on the north face of Observation rock on the steep, dying lobe of the Flett and then ski down the other lobe on snow,..a very classic Cascades day trip. 

The north face is pretty much all neve still with one little bit of ice, it was still really fun to climb up it. I opted to skip the last couple hundred feet to the summit as I had just been up there in mid-July, It's a great summit though, I heartily recommend going up there at least once.

I went around the summit area and around to the col between Obs. Rock and Echo Rock. The upper part of the glacier area was actually in pretty good shape compared to recent years! Not many cracks opening up or visible ice. Once the slope picked up it was another story...Almost all blue ice, rocks, and melt streams. Not very fun or pleasant skiing, but who cares? It is September after all. 

Although it certainly wasn't empty, the Spray Park trail was pretty quiet.  The parking at Mowich was only a half mile down the road when I left around 2:00, when I was last up here it went at least 2 miles. Insta-famous hikes are silly. I mean the Tolmie lookout is a fine hike, but Spray Park is soooo much better.

TAY 108 - another year in the books!