July 19, 2008, Ruth Mountain

After a slow and heavy hike to Hannegan camp Friday afternoon, our reward for lugging in two nights' worth of gear and food, along with our skis and boots, was granted as Chad and I sipped Canadian Whisky that night and soaked in the scenery. Our tent was on dry earth, the bugs were minimal, and the sunset was a warm, bright orange. With our stomachs filling with hot food and our packs growing lighter with every bite, we looked forward to a long night's rest and our ski the next day.

We left camp the next morning with our Ridgerests in our packs (a luxury for the summit nap), and I in my tele-boots, Chad in his hiking boots.  The crux of the day was the mud chute to the south of Hannegan pass; sloppy and steep, but only about 30 minutes of root grabbing to the snow at the base of Ruth's arm.  I had no problem hiking the mud chute in tele boots, and I think Chad made the right call by not hiking from camp in his ski boots.

Once we reached the horizontal snow band below the end of the arm, Chad hung his hiking boots in a tree, and we started skinning around to the left (east) side of Ruth's arm.  After a short, angled ascent under cliffs, we took off our skis and walked about a 500-meter section of trail, then glided across the arm's east slope to its ridge and down to the low point on the arm.  One 4-meter hop over a band of talus, and we were on continuous snow to the summit.

Although we could see an old bootpack heading straight up the North face of Ruth, we decided to keep skinning, angling west across the face.  We switched-back once to get to the large rock prow east of the summit.  There are two small crevases there, just below the prow.  We were able to ski straight up the leeward ramp near the prow and gain the summit ridge.  A short, easy, and direct ski from there to the summit.

After about an hour lunch/nap, we packed up and skied down the north face to the uphill tip of the rocks that form the ridge of the arm (seen in picture called RuthTurns).  The snow was best after 1:00pm; wonderful corn and warm temps.  There were no runnels along the north face, and snow cups were shallow, if present at all.  Perfect summer skiing!  We dropped our packs on the rocks at the bottom of our first run and skinned back up for another.  Chad carved a turn up the inside of the curved ledge facing the prow (see RuthTurns pic) and hucked himself out onto the north face.  I haven't seen that much air in a long time, and never in the backcountry.   We decided to call it a day after such an epic launch, so we skied back to Chad's boots at the top of the mud chute the same way we had come up (walking the short, melted out sections).  

We decided to ski/side-slide a narrow finger of snow just to skiers right of the mud chute rather than down-climb the chute with skis (and boots, for Chad) on our backs (you can't see this snow as you climb the chute; it is on the other side of the band of firs to climber's left). Chad packed his hiking boots and we walked down to the top of the mud chute, then skier's right, through 5 meters of heather, to the snow finger.  That finger of snow dropped us at the bottom of the mud chute.  It was not the quickest, easiest, or most direct ski-able route to back to camp, but it got us around the downclimb.  Two other skiers we met up with later (Jeff and Marty), skied a little further west of the mud chute, and found a quicker, more direct route back to Hannegan camp.  Their route is visible from Hannegan camp and appears to be the last vertical finger of snow attached to the horizontal band below the cliffs.  They had to downclimb a short (approx. 3-4 meters) scree section, then skied virtually right into camp.  Nice call, guys.

Chad and I had a lot more company at camp Saturday night, but such is life at a popular and relatively accessible area like Hannegan Pass.  We hiked out Sunday and, unlike another TAY trip-reporter, enjoyed friendly service and tasty beer at the NorthFork Beer Shrine, not to mention the best pizza I've ever had (our timing and toppings must have been perfect).  -Erik d.