Spider Glacier gone

From Wenatchee, Spider Meadow and Mt. Daniel are my go to late fall skis. Jtack and I have been trying to be more creative, and haven't been to either (in the fall) for a couple years. Last time we went to Spider Meadow we had a very nice two-fer skiing last day of September and first day of October continuous from Spider Gap to where we were camped at the top of a waterfall (an awesome place to spend the night!). This time, on the 2nd of October, we were shocked to find no snow visible from camp, and only three little remnant snow patches along the length of the glacial bed. We went up to Spider Gap just to see the view north, and then walked the loose boulder glacier bed down to the middle patch and had the most ridiculous novelty ski either of us can remember. The snow surface was good. It was just so SHORT. Really a shock to see the ground beneath a once permanent snow and ice feature.

By the way, this time last year, we went to Pinnacle Glacier in the Tatoosh and had the same experience. We looked over the pass from the south expecting to see a glacier below and between us and Mt. Rainier, and all we saw was rocks. These glaciers exist only on maps now. Not in real life.

On the bright side, we did log a ski. 14 years, 1 month for me. We had a fantastic camp, and some nice visits with other visitors to the area. The larch were turning by the hour. Still a very nice trip.