June 14, 2008, Wy'east Face
6/14/08
3478
2
Left the Meadows parking lot later than I'd wanted at ~4:30. Found good firm skinning to the top of the lifts, then found booting convenient up the ridge and up the face. To my surprise, the snow seemed nicely consolidated and well bonded - only tiny patches of recent wind-loading were punchy and avoidable. Another soloist who looked remarkably like every photo I've ever seen of Dan H. (but isn't Dan H. - he was elsewhere Saturday) slowly but steadily gained on me but headed for the Newton-Clark Headwall before he caught up. Topped the face at 9:30 and started the corn-baking vigil while watching "not-Dan" continue up and soaking up the excellent morning. The sun caused the rime ice in the crater to tinkle gently as little (or big) chunks broke off and found their way down. Unexpected and beautiful.
The corn-timer went ding at 10, so I tentatively dropped in. The snow was good. Really good. The new was softer than summer corn - super fun. As I finished up the steepest bits, I saw "not-Dan" making lazy arcs on the snow below. Followed his tracks most of the way down. Made it to a family function near Portland by 12:30... wow!
Met up with an older gentleman at the lot who, among many things, claimed to have foot-glissaded the Cooper Spur a number of times!
Edit: More righter. If you're the Suby-driving soloist, PM me - I've got more photos you'll like.
The corn-timer went ding at 10, so I tentatively dropped in. The snow was good. Really good. The new was softer than summer corn - super fun. As I finished up the steepest bits, I saw "not-Dan" making lazy arcs on the snow below. Followed his tracks most of the way down. Made it to a family function near Portland by 12:30... wow!
Met up with an older gentleman at the lot who, among many things, claimed to have foot-glissaded the Cooper Spur a number of times!
Edit: More righter. If you're the Suby-driving soloist, PM me - I've got more photos you'll like.
Hey TS, I was thinking that that must have been you that kicked off the slide at about 9,000' we saw on our circumnavigation- maybe they were Not Dan's. I'd be interested in hearing someone's story about that, if it was man-made. Check out the slide picture... Was that there when you came down? We did see some tracks on NC, but could not see them all the way down. Looks like there might have been a mistake down the wrong side too- wee saw what seemed like skin traverse tracks in a dead end chute towards Wyeast.
Glad you got Wyeast- we had a great run down Super Bowl, also.~~~~~~~~~
Glad you got Wyeast- we had a great run down Super Bowl, also.~~~~~~~~~
author=Dale Crockatt link=topic=10349.msg41998#msg41998 date=1213920802">
Hey TS, I was thinking that that must have been you that kicked off the slide at about 9,000' we saw on our circumnavigation- maybe they were Not Dan's.
! Nope. My khaki ski pants would be a whole new form of brown and smelly if I'd kicked that off. When I left Meadows at ~11:15, I'd seen no sign of anything more than a sluff all day. I'd had no sense that anything up there was apt to slide, aside from ~50 vf of punchy new snow right at the top of the ridge, where it had been windloaded from above and from the west side (which hadn't slid in your photo). Nary the tiniest whumph.
NotDan didn't kick anything off either. There were at least two folks headed up as I headed down at 10:30. A party of two (that I presume was the same two) posted to TGR, with no mention nor photo of slides. I got little sluffs moving on the east facing traverse out of Heather Canyon, none deeper than ~6", though in retrospect, they did have a slightly slabby nature.
Thanks for dispelling my confusion about why Hood had been so stable when Adams and Rainier both had slide activity - I'd just driven away before the slides happened...
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