TR Replies
Nice to know about those chutes just east of Point 7955. I never considered those.
It seems that you cannot judge the terrain in this area very well from the USGS topo maps. You need to look at photos.
I think I'd want a good pair of crampons to climb or descend the Point 7955 gullies on foot--better than the short fingered Drumpf crampons I had on my trip.
It seems that you cannot judge the terrain in this area very well from the USGS topo maps. You need to look at photos.
I think I'd want a good pair of crampons to climb or descend the Point 7955 gullies on foot--better than the short fingered Drumpf crampons I had on my trip.
The Stevens canyon road is now open to the drainage below unicorn peak, and snow coverage is great from the road. We ended up doing a short tour up to the saddle of Castle Peak on Thursday. It was neat to finally ski in the Tatoosh, and a nice combination with the trek up to Muir yesterday.
Did you guys follow zigzag canyon all the way down to 6000 ft? I usually allow myself only 3-4 turns in each branch of the canyon in order to be able to traverse out to the timberline lifts, but it always looks sooo tempting to keep on skiing down!
Conditions were more like mid/late June than mid-May. Some bark skinning between top of clearcuts and N basin. Sticky below 4800, pretty fun above. My Honda Fit got up the road OK -- but watch out there is a wheel killer washout/pothole on steroids a little past the bridge over Mill creek where the powerline service road branches off to the left from RD 9070
That was a fast road melt! With the upcoming cooling maybe it will linger a bit more - thanks for update.
The north side of the ridge east of 7955 showing the three obvious (to me) snowy routes off the ridge on the north side. I believe the route described in Lowell's TR is the large snow basin on lookers left of the photo, I descended the chute in the middle, and the chute to lookers right might be a nice option.
Here is a photo of Silver on 5/12 from the summit of Granite Mountain. I don't see Silas anywhere but maybe your eyes are better than mine. Looks good to go.
:). Thanks for the TR!
Mega-url photos not yet visible.
Mega-url photos not yet visible.
More pics https://goo.gl/photos/dtGW5AqsUp3yivMTA
[not quite sure how to fully hotlink Google Photos...]
[not quite sure how to fully hotlink Google Photos...]
author=tabski link=topic=36494.msg148674#msg148674 date=1463085222]
Top 200' of east-facing snowfields (above ~10,500') are shin- to knee-high penitentes.
yikes. that looks like tough skiing
Now says May 20th.
https://www.nps.gov/mora/planyourvisit/road-status.htm
https://www.nps.gov/mora/planyourvisit/road-status.htm
that's a ways back there! That second image captures the hike well--beautiful and wild.
great capture all-around, nicely done.
great capture all-around, nicely done.
MattT, that's awesome! We thought we heard/saw people on the summit, but weren't sure. Sad we missed you up there. Hope you had a good tour/climb.
Nice linked blog. Easier reading than TAY for sure.
After summiting Shuksan we spotted you 2 from the edge of the Sulphide. I wondered where ya'll had come from. Nice effort
Snapped this pic of you about to make the crossing to the WS.
After summiting Shuksan we spotted you 2 from the edge of the Sulphide. I wondered where ya'll had come from. Nice effort
Snapped this pic of you about to make the crossing to the WS.
Surprised to see new snow in your photos. I wasn't aware the mountains got snow last Sunday.
Thanks for the reply - we're looking forward to checking it out!
The chute was very easy traveling in boots. We were there around 1:30pm, so it was easy for kick steps. I felt comfortable without an ice axe, but if the snow was harder or if more rocks melted out I could see an ice axe adding a comfort factor.
I dunno, as with all things it's up to you I guess :)
Oh, I wouldn't follow our skin tracks out of the gate. Don't ascend unnecessarily getting to bench lake - stay further climbers left.
I dunno, as with all things it's up to you I guess :)
Oh, I wouldn't follow our skin tracks out of the gate. Don't ascend unnecessarily getting to bench lake - stay further climbers left.
Great vid, thanks for sharing and if you don't leave the link we can't watch. So nothing shameful about leaving links, I do all the time.
My favorite part was the crash on the jump. Funny.
My favorite part was the crash on the jump. Funny.
Thanks for the report - we've never skied there but were thinking of trying it out later this week. Did the chute above snow lake require crampons/ice axe for the ascent?
The south facing face of Hyak was about baked a month ago. I did a quick evening tour that required a short boot up to the stream crossing and skinned from there. The snow on the north side was fairing much better at that point. I drove by two weeks ago and it looked like a booter to the beer can with marginal skiing at best between the patches even midway up.
Sad to hear Summit West is toast. She provided some good turns to the car on 5/1. Snow is melti...
Sad to hear Summit West is toast. She provided some good turns to the car on 5/1. Snow is melti...
great write up jason! it's cool to see how good all those photos i remember you taking turned out. i really like the shot of the indian head descent, even though it looks like i'm trying to punch my way through an invisible wall.
thanks again for going "fishing" down the whittier couloir. we'll have to go back for that one in better conditions.
and of course, here's the shameless obligatory link to my video of the trip...
thanks again for going "fishing" down the whittier couloir. we'll have to go back for that one in better conditions.
and of course, here's the shameless obligatory link to my video of the trip...
I love the log crossing pic. Glad you were able to get out!
Great report on a fun tour.
In years past that road would be opened to Snow/bench lake before the whole Stevens canyon road.
In years past that road would be opened to Snow/bench lake before the whole Stevens canyon road.
Awsome!! Nice job Seth,
Lets see some more photos, Hope your wife is healing up well :)
Lets see some more photos, Hope your wife is healing up well :)
We need to find a way to harvest these trip reports and / or create an app that shows progress up-road as a function of date. How hard can that possibly be? It would just have to be a marker on a map.
thanks for the update.
The ranger station said the road was still snowed in at least 4.5 miles from Morrison Creek just last Thursday. I don't think they really have any idea.
The ranger station said the road was still snowed in at least 4.5 miles from Morrison Creek just last Thursday. I don't think they really have any idea.
Nice work, how many sunny days of skiing left are in the finger would you estimate?
Great choice while everyone else is running around the cascades!
Did a solo tour yesterday afternoon to the top of the padded seats, too. Very few folks out and about; I ran into a group finishing-up as I was starting up who reported that Upper Nash was firm but skiable. By the time I got up there 145 mins later the E-Bowl side had gotten sticky but the late afternoon descent down l'Internationale offered superb corn, I suspect partly due to the morning's light drizzle which I mist out on ;D
Called my mom while lounging about in the thin...
Called my mom while lounging about in the thin...
Eh, I'd say there was one higher risk move crossing that warm slope low on the cleaver in late afternoon. Nothing really beyond that I'd characterize as a close call. Thankfully the run out on that wasn't horrible.
Found similar elsewhere at the Pass. In the open, skiing is good above 4k where there's snow; in the trees, there's oodles of tree litter. South and west facing slopes are starting to get cooked, even in the trees. I think Snoqualmie has passed through the worst of pollen-season. 70mm skis worked great.
Wow, a lot of close calls in that report. Glad you guys are ok!
Perfectly Sane,
That's a great moniker. BTW, I think every adventure is perfectly sane on google earth ;) Too bad reality isn't so kind. I guess it helps the in story telling at least. Thanks for reading!
That's a great moniker. BTW, I think every adventure is perfectly sane on google earth ;) Too bad reality isn't so kind. I guess it helps the in story telling at least. Thanks for reading!
Nice work kamtron and philfort! Thanks for the great TR and inspiration.
Awesome work getting out there guys. Such a cool place. So much adventure to be had in the olympics.
Hi Lowell, not surprising that other folks have explored back there. The Eel route would be a logical place to go.
It must have been very difficult for early travelers to get into those valleys before the National Park infrastructure was built. Those early skiers were rugged.
It must have been very difficult for early travelers to get into those valleys before the National Park infrastructure was built. Those early skiers were rugged.
Hi Lowell - I read that in preparation for this climb - thought the inline skate cache idea was brilliant for your high-orbit trip.
I just re-read the Tahoma Glacier part and it looks like you took the gully below Glacier Island - we had scoped out a line above that for our descent that looked less crevasse-ridden, but it sounds like it's probably more fun to go straight down the middle of the Tahoma with those large seracs on either side.
Anyway looked like an awesome...
I just re-read the Tahoma Glacier part and it looks like you took the gully below Glacier Island - we had scoped out a line above that for our descent that looked less crevasse-ridden, but it sounds like it's probably more fun to go straight down the middle of the Tahoma with those large seracs on either side.
Anyway looked like an awesome...
author=kamtron link=topic=36465.msg148591#msg148591 date=1462764770]
History note:
From our research, at least two other groups have skied in the Anderson area before. In 1941, a group of soldiers crossed the Olympics through Anderson pass.
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1338&dat=19410322&id=beJXAAAAIBAJ&sjid=R_UDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3314,5094858&hl=en
http://www.alpenglow.org/ski-history/notes/comm/woodward-john.html
In...
I had a somewhat similar experience approaching the Tahoma Glacier from the west in June 1997. After that failure, we decided to ski the route by carrying over the summit from Camp Muir. That turned into a really nice trip in June 2003. I wrote about it (with a bunch of background info) here:
http://alpenglow.org/skiing/tahoma-2003/index.html
http://alpenglow.org/skiing/tahoma-2003/index.html
Thanks for the great images and story telling Jason - clearly a NW epic.
At the choke points of the run we were hitting rock on the boot pack up.
Hope the center spline has better coverage.
Hope the center spline has better coverage.
Great tour. I was looking at the map and realized we actually went a quarter of the way around the mountain and back. I was also interested to see that the USGS map shows the Ingraham/Cowlitz descending to 5,200 ft, a full mile below where we crossed. Has anyone looked down on the Cowlitz in late summer and noted where the ice ends?