June 5th, Ruth Mtn

The rain last week had me looking for some phase two fun and Friday seemed the most promising in the forecast. Was able to link up with another TAY-er Ryan ( @snowboy) for a spring lap up the Ruth glacier. 

 As we pulled into the Hannegan pass trail head I could see the infamous orange diagonal striped WSDOT signs across the road and my heart dropped. Stymied again... We parked our cars and I hoped out to investigate. The majority of the road was entirely washed out right at the start of the parking lot though access to trail seemed clear, what luck!

Ryan and I had a quick chat about the day and sipped on some hot coffee while we loaded up. Around the washout and up the summer trail we went. We were able to stick to the summer trail for the majority of the climb to Hannegan pass with a few suspicious debris filled creek crossings. Thankfully the snow surface was just frozen enough to allow passage, yet just wet enough to provide that squishy shoe feeling so well associated with spring skiing.  

As we ascended up to Hannegan pass the snow became consistent enough to switch into boots get skis on the ground. Skinning up and around pt 5930 went from walking on egg carton like sun cups to a more firm and lightly runnled surface with awesome views of the Nooksack cirq and Shuksan the whole way. By the time we gained the Ruth Arm, the surface had turned to that untouched lightly saturated surface that rivals rocky mountain cold smoke. Awesome. We topped out on Ruth, had a snack, enjoyed the views, and decided to take advantage of a partly sunny surprise to descend. The first 1000+ ft of skiing had me grinning like the Cheshire cat. Skiing lower on the mountian became slightly grabby but nothing to complain about.  A healthy valley snow pack allowed us to make quick work of the exit to the cars and a couple of cold drinks.