November 19-20, 2005, Sherman Peak Attempt

Hoping for the spring conditions from previous reports, Silas and I headed down to the south side of baker for an attempt at sherman peak up the easton glacier.  We started around noon on saturday, driving my borrowed 4runner as far up the road as possible (we got to around 2000').  The snowmobile groomer had come through, so it was a flat skin all the way up to the meadows.  Not too many 'bealers, I think we were passed by around 10 total over the 3 or so mile skin.  Above schrieber meadows, we split from the snowmobile tracks (we went up the gulley just east of the railroad grade).  The trail breaking was slow due to deep, sloppy snow.  At around 5,000 feet, it was around 4 so we decided to stop and camp.  Got to bed early, beautiful warm night - don't think it ever went below freezing.

We awoke around 6 to a bulletproof crust and clear skies.  We weaved through the moraines and got onto the easton glacier.  Around 7,000 feet, we re-evaluated the situation; it looked like it was going to be borderline ice/breakable crust all the way down.  The idea of finding our cache and skiing breakable crust in the dark was none too appealing.  On top of that, the crevasse bridges were sagging, which would have made for some wavy skiing.  We probed a few crevasses, and the bridges were thicker than my probe (240cm).  So, we sat for a while and enjoyed the view and munched on some bavarian cheese and started down.  Probably the worst skiing (and best winter weather) experience since I arrived in washington - crust, slop, breakable crust, etc...  The snow got super sloppy down lower and was made worse with the heavier packs.  All I can say is, I may not like snowmobiles, but they're tracks sure are fantastic.  Breaking trail on the three miles of flat slop back to the car would not have been a good time.

Anyone know why would a snowmobiler put a can of bush light under my tire?  though it was kind odd...