Heliotrope-Coleman 8/23/08
8/15/08
WA Cascades West Slopes North (Mt Baker)
4020
3
Saturday provided a perfect window of weather and conditions for a hike out Heliotrope and some skiing on Coleman glacier. The trail from car to the glacier was completely clean of debris and made for easy hiking.
My good buddy Ric and I hit the trail shortly after 9am and were skinning up the NW ridge (well away from the climbing route and most of the larger crevasses) by noon. We started skinning around 5800' under mostly bluebird skies with only a few rolling clouds around the summit. We made it to about 7100' before our somewhat rushed schedule turned us around. Along the way passed a few obvious crevasses, mainly towards the bottom, that were easy to bypass.
The new snow earlier in the week had completely covered the suncups to about 6000' while the day's warm weather combined for ski conditions of warm, untracked corn. We might even be so optimistic to say we skied about 6" of some kind of pow in August! The steeper stuff further west looked great and a couple other skiiers with more time and energy were getting laps out there.
Back to the car with cold beers in hand by 3:30. All in all a perfect day with plenty of snow to go around for some time. However, we were somewhat disappointed that not a single person in the mob of day hikers we passed asked where the lifts were.
Trying to get pics attached . . .
My good buddy Ric and I hit the trail shortly after 9am and were skinning up the NW ridge (well away from the climbing route and most of the larger crevasses) by noon. We started skinning around 5800' under mostly bluebird skies with only a few rolling clouds around the summit. We made it to about 7100' before our somewhat rushed schedule turned us around. Along the way passed a few obvious crevasses, mainly towards the bottom, that were easy to bypass.
The new snow earlier in the week had completely covered the suncups to about 6000' while the day's warm weather combined for ski conditions of warm, untracked corn. We might even be so optimistic to say we skied about 6" of some kind of pow in August! The steeper stuff further west looked great and a couple other skiiers with more time and energy were getting laps out there.
Back to the car with cold beers in hand by 3:30. All in all a perfect day with plenty of snow to go around for some time. However, we were somewhat disappointed that not a single person in the mob of day hikers we passed asked where the lifts were.
Trying to get pics attached . . .
Hey rubes,
It was cool to see you guys up there. What a great day! The ridge off to the west was indeed worth a couple of laps. We were pretty happy to have such good August conditions.
Fortunately, I filled yesterday's quota for spills when I bit it right in front of you. I'm not too disappointed not to see the pic posted. I figured a spill like that deserved some public humiliation. :) You've got to pay attention in that kind of August "pow", eh?
Nice work!
It was cool to see you guys up there. What a great day! The ridge off to the west was indeed worth a couple of laps. We were pretty happy to have such good August conditions.
Fortunately, I filled yesterday's quota for spills when I bit it right in front of you. I'm not too disappointed not to see the pic posted. I figured a spill like that deserved some public humiliation. :) You've got to pay attention in that kind of August "pow", eh?
Nice work!
Are you kidding me? Was I really just skiing in August? Thanks for the great day Rubes. I've never been more motivated to prepare early for the upcoming ski season. Those 5 minutes of skiing were worth the 5 blisters I've got screaming on my FEET.
Could not have asked for a better day, weatherwise; and kudos to the cats that were lappin' it up there. Millsak...If you want the photo, I'll e-mail it to you. You earned the right not to have that photo posted...you two were machines.
Enjoy the rest of the summer. ;D
Could not have asked for a better day, weatherwise; and kudos to the cats that were lappin' it up there. Millsak...If you want the photo, I'll e-mail it to you. You earned the right not to have that photo posted...you two were machines.
Enjoy the rest of the summer. ;D
We had no choice but to keep doing laps... we'd forgotten the beer at home... :'(
Glad to have company up there - take care!
Glad to have company up there - take care!
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