10-28-08, Kulshan, C/D
10/28/08
6821
7
I left the trailhead at the foolishly late hour of 11:30am, but managed to get up to the summit around 4:45pm, and skiied down to the bottom of heli-ridge with enough dusk-light to find my stashed shoes, and get started on the trail before darkness set in.
Some note-worthy observations:
* Heliotrope ridge is perilously icy (water ice + glacial ice), except for the low angle wide gully type feature well to the west.
* Cracks seem to be filling in nicely, and all bridges are satisfactorily intact.
* The wind was punishing on the upper mountain. (Just shy of knockdown force, and a massive lenticular hovered at summit elevation a mile lee of the mountain.)
* The Roman Wall was icy frozen corn.
* The best turns were below the Roman Wall and to the south of the cleaver.
* All the snow below the col was breakable sun/temp. crust. - but still quite skiable. (Heli Ridge was more of a suportable frozen corn crust with patches of water ice.)
Looking down Roman Wall / Click for biggies
The bridge of question
Dusk reflection off breakable ice crust
sun gettin low
Some note-worthy observations:
* Heliotrope ridge is perilously icy (water ice + glacial ice), except for the low angle wide gully type feature well to the west.
* Cracks seem to be filling in nicely, and all bridges are satisfactorily intact.
* The wind was punishing on the upper mountain. (Just shy of knockdown force, and a massive lenticular hovered at summit elevation a mile lee of the mountain.)
* The Roman Wall was icy frozen corn.
* The best turns were below the Roman Wall and to the south of the cleaver.
* All the snow below the col was breakable sun/temp. crust. - but still quite skiable. (Heli Ridge was more of a suportable frozen corn crust with patches of water ice.)
Looking down Roman Wall / Click for biggies
The bridge of question
Dusk reflection off breakable ice crust
sun gettin low
Thanks for the update. Also...I looked thru your webshots and the fishindudes are me and my buddy john. Small world huh?
Sick time up that sucker, Dan! You must be getting quite the cardio work out up north these days. HAHA
I love that Dusk reflection pic....
I love that Dusk reflection pic....
How was the crevasse section beside the icefall,we went all the way to the left then all the way back and the snow bridge was just covered with a bit of new snow, it looked sketchy we turned around on October 22. A bummer
the Roman wall might have been powder.
Spicoli - Wow, small world indeed - thanks for being so picturesque. I kinda thought you guys would have been annoyed by my shameless intrusion on your tranquil outing. I always feel a little violated when some stranger takes interest in photographing me for little apparent reason.
Atraslin - There was another more circuitous way past that large crevasse with the questionable bridge. It was just to the east of the bridge, but required some weaving - I took the more direct route to save time, and it appeared solid enough - definitely didn't linger on it though. Other than that there was a small steep step out of a dippy feature, and a few crossings on solid bridges. There are a few sinister partially hidden cracks just off the standard route that might be of concern to riders after a fresh snow fall - but that should be expected on Baker this time of year.
Atraslin - There was another more circuitous way past that large crevasse with the questionable bridge. It was just to the east of the bridge, but required some weaving - I took the more direct route to save time, and it appeared solid enough - definitely didn't linger on it though. Other than that there was a small steep step out of a dippy feature, and a few crossings on solid bridges. There are a few sinister partially hidden cracks just off the standard route that might be of concern to riders after a fresh snow fall - but that should be expected on Baker this time of year.
Way to get up there dan! i was up on the BP cleaver over the weekend and it was good, but hoped for more snow. Soon. It's on its way!
author=danhelmstadter link=topic=11127.msg45777#msg45777 date=1225393857]
Spicoli - Wow, small world indeed - thanks for being so picturesque. I kinda thought you guys would have been annoyed by my shameless intrusion on your tranquil outing. I always feel a little violated when some stranger takes interest in photographing me for little apparent reason.
We didn't even notice you taking the pictures. It was pretty funny to stumble across them...I like the shots. Maybe I'll run into you sometime in the mountains....cheers
man, thats pretty fast.. looks like fun
Reply to this TR
Please login first: