A mile one-way sounds about right, allowing for weaving around brush & boulders. I'd guess about 700 vf on the approach, maybe a hundred-fifty feet uphill on the return. The sun doesn't hit the patch until late, so it's probably quite firm with a lack of runout...
Maybe someplace with snowmaking like Hood Or Whistler?
Hi Gary. Looks like the approach could be a mile one way? Looking for very short approaches; it's kinda hard to walk a month before a hip replacement. tx
Thanks for the status report and nice pictures; hopefully the ankle feels OK by now. Looks gnarly up there but there is a hope that we'll get some freshies in October.
We noticed that patch while we were climbing—thanks for the approach tip! Planning to ski the Tatoosh next Spring, hopefully the entire ski traverse when it’s a little more filled in.
Thanks for the enjoyable TR; your writing is nifty and your knees must be steel.!
Your second & last photos show much lower hanging fruit for a possible TAY twofer. There is still a fairly large snowpatch in the big gully between Pinnacle & Plummer peaks. About half a mile up the Pinnacle trail, it turns left at a big rock and passes a couple small forested benches. Make a slightly descending SW traverse for a few hundred yards to the big gully. Looks like ma...
"We often think of exploration as seeing an entirely new place, but to me, it feels more special exploring the same place from different angles, seeing it change as we change ourselves."
Great TR. I've been drawn to this idea as well. No shortage of ways to experience that mountain.
For those seeking 'easy' September turns, the Pinnacle 'glacier' snowpatch near Paradise is looking pretty small. There is a much larger patch in the big gully between Pinnacle & Plummer peaks. Shortly after the Pinnacle trail turns left at a big rock and before it steepens about a half-mile from Reflection Lake, make a slightly descending SW traverse starting on forested benches. The patch looks like maybe a couple hundred vf at ~30 degrees. Check out the far right marg...
...if you make turns the first week of November, have your surgery on the 9th, take 7 weeks to recover, present your "patient wife" with note from your doctor, make turns again on December 31st, then you can continue your "fine madness" into the 16th year. We need heroes!
Dude Kam, I just noticed the new rock bands that have shown up on the lower face. There's that huge rock and the two smaller rocks. That is mind blowing. I climbed this face a few years back on one of my trips, and that lower face was full on glacier ice, with small crevasses in it. Now to see that there are basically mini nunataks forming in the middle of it really shows the scale of the ice thinning. I think we're probably looking at 20-30 feet of ice thickness loss in the past few ye...
Repeated this trip July 18 solo. Sunday night the White River Campground had plenty of space to stay. It rained pretty good for awhile in the middle of the night, so those in tents got a good test. I started up the trail at 7am, made Glacier Basin by 8:30. Still no snow so I walked another half mile to where the valley turns left to start skinning. Made it to the top of Steamboat Prow at 12:30, a personal best time. It was occasionally windy and cold on the...
Sorry a bit late for your headwall beta but at that point it went on far skier's right, when I looked back from below.
No way Allen that's so awesome! The pollen was really bad, yes. It was a recurrent subject of discussion as you can imagine. Dan hypothesized that perhaps it could be a reaction to the previous summer's stress?
Yeah, Russman, the underlying ice has receded a lot. The feel of being on the face is really different, less planar and more concave. My last time going up there, I think.
Good stuff, I think I saw your party navigating off of Sherman onto the upper Talum yesterday as I took a friend up the Squak. From the Boulder glacier (not ridge) you can cross under the cleaver back to the Talum as well to get back towards your camp, but that wouldn't have given you another run down the Wall!
Yesterday the snow was great corn off the Roman wall at noon, nice consolidated snow down the glacier as well until the bumpiness started around 7k. Pollen on th...
Kam thanks so much for posting this. This is honestly a really sad post. I can't even believe how much thinner the upper face looks now. Its almost like the underlying glacier ice has completely melted off, probably in last year's glacier heat death.
