October 9, 2011, Coleman Glacier Crustfest

It had been snowing a bit throughout the previous week and I had been getting antsy all week at work.  Noticed a small window of opportunity for good weather in the alpine beginning mid morning Sunday and lasting throughout the day.  After recruiting a friend to partake, we left Seattle about 3:30 and headed up the Heliotrope Ridge trail in the fog and rain.  The obvious need for ski crampons once the snow started at 6000' was a foreshadowing of things to come, as it appears that the rain made it much, much further up he mountain than I had predicted from my office chair.  We climbed to about 8100' before deciding that the crust had graduated from benign zipper crust to unskiable death crust.  It would have been perfect weather to keep going, but with the difficult conditions and dropping freezing level it seemed wiser to leave the upper mountain for another day.  Skiing the steeper roll into the saddle wasn't too bad, but once the angle relaxed our lightweight touring skis were no match for the thick, strong crust.  The descent path changed from elegant arcs to sharp angular hop turns patterns more reminiscent of a skin track than anything else.  After our out of season knees started getting tired, we just pulled the skis and booted down as the risk of injury was much higher than the chance of legitimate enjoyment.  Did a few laps from ~6600' down to the snow line where it was more like hero corn with a light firm topping.  We then retreated to the Beer Shrine in search of pizza.  All considered, not a bad day.  Looking forward to some winter snow.