I have heard tell that a lot of the hardcore crushers that ski this line (who don't post on social media or forums) often do the up-and-over. I think the folks I've heard of were mostly mountain guides who could crash at Muir with a daypack, then launch up and over to ski off the other side. Seems like a cool strategy, but scary not knowing what kind of ice or deathly schmoo might await.
I was up there yesterday (May 27) and the approach was pretty much as described in the original approach, although I did not look at the river approach/deproach. Coverage is continuous from the basin up to Steamboat Prow but the skiing was largely an unconsolidated schmoo fest from a few hundred feet below the Prow to about 6,800 feet in the basin.
great trip report! One of my favorite silly rides is getting from West Seattle to Hyak and back in a day, though its a bit too long a haul to squeeze in skiing - nicely done pulling off the no-car ski tour.
That south line on Dome looks worthy. I've only skied the N Face of Sinister, and it left quite an impression--a fantastic line with great position looking out over the Ptarmigan traverse peaks. Glad you found it in good conditions, which appears similar to my experience (but much later in a v robust season).
To this day I’ve always just assumed some hardcore Snoq Pass local skied that thing with no rope long before I started faffing around in the valley and posting about it on the internet 😂 🤷♂️.
Sounds spicy! I have looked up at those gullies under the coxcomb and wondered. I don't think many people, if any, have traveled through there. Way to come out of it all good.
Nice work, those are some fun lines! I’ve got fond memories of that day with Tabke. Every time I’m on the Coleman since then I look up at the elephant trunk, it’s been interesting see it change over the years, sometimes I think the ice recession is making it less challenging, but other times it seems much more difficult. Depends on that years snowpack I imagine.
SO GREAT! I can't really imagine skiing from that summit but I'm glad somebody can. That's certainly one of the proudest descents in the range. Well done!
It seems like the elephant trunk is widening as the glacier recedes, especially comparing Drew and your photos.
Funnily enough, I watched Jere Burrell snowboard this line last spring on the same day your crew was riding the Coleman headwall (I still owe you photos, will deliver).
Thunder's upper headwall is much thinner than in years past. I was up there on April 5, the headwall was sick pow, but the upper section connector looked too rocky and thin for my margin...
Kamtron has been alerting me to your exploits or I might have missed this. Love to see it. I think we had a 60m for rapping the divide and needed 40m of it, but that’s just a guess and probably depends on the snowpack 🤷♂️
Awesome! Havent checked out TAY in forever and was stoked to see this TR first thing. Always wondered if someone would ever score this line in pow, it would be a wild ride. Nice one Hedonaut! pretty special lil summit to be on solo with your skis
I failed to mention their trip report in my blurb at the start of the report. Didn't intend to misrepresent anything, just a dumb omission on my par...
Went and got this done yesterday with Brendan. We were able to enter from the Sisters glacier side and skied the line top-down. Unfortunately, about the same kind of runnely conditions as last time, but fun position for some steep turns.
Those layoffs are an important issue. Another important issue, for backcountry trip planning, SAR mission planning, and overall water resources planning, is the gutting of federal science. Weather, SNOTEL, avy forecasts, terrain analysis and more depend on streams of federally funded data. Here is a good take on this by Doug Chabot.
Great trip report, thanks for taking the time to post it. Well written with stunning photos.
Our crew was a fair bit east of you in the Selkirks in, shall we say, more pedestrian terrain. However, we did share your suffering up similar "hilarious...double back diamond...triple-riser...steep skinners." The locals are a tougher lot than us. Straight up, no problem. But the sun made the 2° feel warm and the skiing was good. When you stand on top of those BC mountains and do a 360, you se...
