July 5, 2009, Pinnacle Glacier
7/5/09
1998
3
On July 5 my friend Jim and I made an easy trip up to the saddle between Pinnacle Peak and the Castle (MRNP). Weather was great and travel was easy. Snow was intermittent through the trees starting at the Reflection Lake trailhead. We were able to find continuous snow a couple of hundred feet up the trail (from about 4,950 feet elevation) by following narrow snow paths between larger patches of snow. It is likely many of these narrow paths will melt out over the next week. We found good snow cover starting at 5,500 feet, and the open slopes higher up had good coverage.
We opted for the ridge connecting Pinnacle Peak and the Castle over the more popular Castle-Foss ridge because it is a little steeper. The weather was clear and sunny, and the ridge offered good views of the south face of Mt Rainier and we could see Mt Hood to the south. The southern slope of the Tatoosh range was completely melted out. The snow on the northern slope was easy to ski it was firm, and just starting to become bumpy. The Slush Cup Tarn was still solid snow. We skied down our continuous path to 4,950 feet, followed by a very brief stroll to the Reflection Lakes parking area.
A few other observations:
The Nisqually chute looks pretty bad at the top the top quarter has a lot of exposed rocks and debris on the slope. There may be some nice turns below that, but not for long.
There were some good-looking lines from the top of the Turtle down the Van Trump toward Comet Falls (somebody had enjoyed them recently). Some of this may still be there next weekend.
It looked like there was still some good snow on the Paradise Glacier.
We opted for the ridge connecting Pinnacle Peak and the Castle over the more popular Castle-Foss ridge because it is a little steeper. The weather was clear and sunny, and the ridge offered good views of the south face of Mt Rainier and we could see Mt Hood to the south. The southern slope of the Tatoosh range was completely melted out. The snow on the northern slope was easy to ski it was firm, and just starting to become bumpy. The Slush Cup Tarn was still solid snow. We skied down our continuous path to 4,950 feet, followed by a very brief stroll to the Reflection Lakes parking area.
A few other observations:
The Nisqually chute looks pretty bad at the top the top quarter has a lot of exposed rocks and debris on the slope. There may be some nice turns below that, but not for long.
There were some good-looking lines from the top of the Turtle down the Van Trump toward Comet Falls (somebody had enjoyed them recently). Some of this may still be there next weekend.
It looked like there was still some good snow on the Paradise Glacier.
Cool---we skied over your tracks in the fog yesterday.
Did you leave one BD pole and a Petzl axe/pole at the very top of the glacier? They wera t the very top of the snow yesterday.
Did you leave one BD pole and a Petzl axe/pole at the very top of the glacier? They wera t the very top of the snow yesterday.
author=telemack link=topic=13797.msg57649#msg57649 date=1247000510]
Cool---we skied over your tracks in the fog yesterday.
Did you leave one BD pole and a Petzl axe/pole at the very top of the glacier? They wera t the very top of the snow yesterday.
yeah, we were going to take them down to see if we could find the owners but then figured they were probably Ranger Rick's and we didn't want to get yelled at and have to put them back.
author=telemack link=topic=13797.msg57649#msg57649 date=1247000510]
Cool---we skied over your tracks in the fog yesterday.
Did you leave one BD pole and a Petzl axe/pole at the very top of the glacier? They wera t the very top of the snow yesterday.
Those aren't ours - we saw several parties going up after us - one of them must have left it. We also met a party that was climbing Pinnacle Peak; another party going for the peak may have left them behind while they scrambled up the peak.
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