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Year-round backcountry skiing: Ptarmigan Ridge skiing photos, Mt. Baker
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This is a gallery of Ptarmigan Ridge skiing photos. Thumbnail images on this page can be clicked to view the full-sized image, and lead into a slide show sequence for that gallery. Lots of snow and a long ridge combined for a long tour. Firm, suncupped and runneled snow in most places discouraged run making, but good turns were found at the far end of the tour, near Mt. Baker's Rainbow Glacier, and the scenery was everywhere sublime.
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Ptarmigan Ridge, Mt. Baker backcountry, Washington, July 17, 2002
Austin Pass |
Coleman Pinnacle and Baker |
Andy off Ptarmigan Ridge #1 |
Andy off Ptarmigan Ridge #2 |
Sholes Glacier |
The Portals and Park Glacier |
Mt. Shuksan |
Charles near Rainbow Glacier |
Andy near Rainbow Glacier |
Andy on Sholes Glacier |
Ptarmigan Ridge |
Skiable |
Photos by Andy Palunas and Charles Eldridge |
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Associated trip report: Andy and I wanted a long tour, so we headed for Ptarmigan Ridge to see what we could find. Bottom line: lots of snow, mostly bad, due to suncups and runnels. We still had to park at the ski area; although the road was clear to Austin Pass, plowing was in progress just beyond. Only patches of snow in the first 1/3 mile (before first switchback), then continuous snow up to Austin and beyond, with one short melt-out just before the S slopes of Table Mountain. At the saddle where Ptarmigan Ridge begins, we crossed to the N side and skied out to a saddle just W of Coleman Pinnacle, where we crossed back to the S side of the ridge. A short steep run on reasonable snow, then crossed back again to the N side and the Sholes Glacier through a broad saddle. We traversed the upper Sholes to a saddle labeled The Portals on our map, crossed to the S side of the ridge, and traversed W a bit to the edge of the Rainbow Glacier. Here we found the best turning, and did a couple of short runs. The return trip, over the same route, featured lots of gliding, a few short sections of turning, and some exciting traverses across steep, hard snow. As we returned across the south slopes of Table Mountain, a slab of winter snowpack cut loose from up high, releasing big icy chunks which tumbled down across our intended path.
Overall, the snow was pretty bad, although it was fast. Steeper snow was generally less suncupped, gentler was generally both suncupped and runneled. North facing stayed very hard, other exposures receiving the sun's warmth softened acceptably, for the most part. We were not tempted to make lots of runs, although the coverage was there for it, but where we needed to lose some elevation we usually found OK turning snow. Traveling across the snow was hard work, whether ascending or traversing, due to its massive unevenness. Nonetheless, it was a good trip. Baker and Shuksan came out, we could see lots of North Cascades peaks, and we saw a bear very carefully traversing steep hard snow near Coleman Pinnacle. Next year, we'll go a little earlier in hope of finding smoother snow.
Charles |
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