TR Replies

What a difference 35 years makes.

This is what the Damnation Creek road looked like in March 1986, when Mark Bebie, Brian Sullivan and I went that way to make the first winter ascents of Triumph and Despair.

Here Brian shows off his 'stream skiing skills.

Nice to hear a good word for Humpback. I've tried to get others to go there who have maligned it as "not worth driving up there for" and "reminds me of New England."   Humpbacks got a lot of aspects and some interesting adventure zones...

This person will call it what it was... bad snow! Bad in the breakable crust sense, at times, but mostly bad in the ready-to-avalanche mush sense.

We got to camp around 10:30 am on Friday and caught sight of a pretty smooth S face. As the day heated up, we watched the face fall apart in wet loose and wet loose-triggered wet slabs. Other avalanches were shedding off of Triumph and slopes near our camp.

I pretty much wrote off the objective for me at that point, given the superf...

@galenweld we started around 6:30 am I think? Just as it was getting light. We needed headlamps on neither end of the day.

Tbashor,

Looking over my report our Crossing Of Whitman GL. to Fryingpan Gl. was on June 4 2011.

We also wore harnesses and carried a rope but never felt the need to uncoil rope, 

My Question- you said you started up Edith Basin at 730am from parking lot,

Did you camp overnight or is the gate at Longmire open all night now?

Thanks

Robie

Good work ! Yes great views and a great tour with or without a ascent of Lil Tahoma.

We passed thru there years ago to a White river exit down the frying pan but im convinced the  ski backdown the whitman is  the better ski.

Even with the climb back up to Cowlitz saddle,

Thanks for the report and pics

AWESOME!

Wow, able to ski all the way down to Pyramid Lake?!  In summer that approach up to Snowfield peak proved to be one of the more arduous that I've done (with a pack), hard to imagine what it would look like under snow.  

Cool report! Sounds like a sensible respect for the mushy conditions in the mountains last weekend.

I wish I'd had the sense to look for the northern lights on Friday

yeah, beautiful but touchy window! I can only imagine...

I think I've seen that bear, older fellow?  Super mellow, I've got a great pic of him (tho could be her) somewhere

yeah you know nature, ephemeral, things change, just like this report, last of the snoqualmie powder then boom! here we are

You've been there before Eric, with these two, looking down the line--

visibility was better Sunday tho, and fatter--and you're right Kam, not oft "in"

As for the ski, not sure, couldn't see anything for a couple second...

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Anytime. See ya'll up there

I enjoy your style of the TR and photos.😀

That pic is sic! Reminds me of a backlit wave. Thanks for sharing. 

Nice area. 

Looks awesome! Way to get it! 

ps44: The drive time for this trip was around three and a half hours so a bit longer than something on CRR or up at Baker. It also seems the access is generally poor in the Olympics requiring a lot of hiking verse starting at snow line in the North Cascades. Lack of trip reports and observations and less robust avalanche forecasting also makes planning a bit more challenging. 

Looks you had a great time.  How do you compare logistics of Olympics (travel time from Seattle, hassle) to a trip, say, to N. Cascades?

Wow, magical conditions. A high bar indeed.

When we did the Watson Traverse backwards (1974), we chose to ascend to Ptarmigan Ridge just past the cockscomb.  Saves goofing around with Bergschrunds and crevasses. On that day (early March) it was a good decision.

Beautiful pictures. Too bad the clouds moved in. What a fun glacier powder ski though! I’d go there for that!

That does sound like a heck of a slog! Skiing all that pow down the glacier and Coleman pinnacle bowl must have been really nice, though.

The schrunds (there are 2) are usually passable until late season without any hucking on the far looker's left (which avoids the lower of the 2 cracks), closer towards Boulder/Park cleaver than the Cockscomb. That place pinches off, whereas part towards the Cockscomb seems to open up every year pretty wide. Worth a read: 

Risk assessment in the mountains is an inexact science.

You do it in "feet" and not in "meters"?