Home > Trip Reports > September 7 - Frying Pan Glacier (sort of)

September 7 - Frying Pan Glacier (sort of)

9/15/09
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
3723
5
Posted by AndyMartin on 9/8/09 12:12pm
Possibly over-excited by the forecast of new snow I decided to enjoy the long approach to Whitman Crest. As always I completely underestimated the length of this route, forgetting that it is almost 4,000' to the bottom of the skiable snow. Anyway, I had an enjoyable hike to Summerland, with a nice sighting of the resident bear along the trail. I opted to hike to Meany Crest via Goat Cirque, thinking it was lower angled than the frontal assault. It certainly was, but hiking through jumbled talus with 6"-18" of heavy new snow is no joke either! I skinned a few hundred feet along the crest to the toe of the glacier proper. By this time a combination of mist, snow and lack of time severely impacted my motivation and I decided to ski down from there. I was also unhappy with the large wet pinwheels I set off on every slope, remembering the near disastrous avalanche on the Flett in September a few years back. A few hundred feet of OK skiing enabled me to plunge step the talus in running shoes and rejoin my (much more sensible) wife.
Nevertheless, it WAS exciting to see some actual weather and new snow and was a worthwhile outing, even with a JOM of about 10%.
Good effort.
A deposit in the Karma bank.

Indeed -- hopefully you'll reap some rewards for your work.

from your picture it kinda looks like goat cirque is completely melted out...is there any neve still clinging to the steeps in the cirque or is it down to bare rock walls now?   i remember doing some fun yoyoing in that cirque maybe nine years ago in october...wondering if those slopes are toast now.

Pete - there are 3 or 4 remnant neve patches spread out along the upper wall. I doubt if any are more than 200 VF long. There are a few minor patches down in the flats, but no vertical there! I guess there is only about 20% of the "permanent" snow shown on the USGS map left. Similar melting to that which I observed on the White Chuck Glacier on Glacier Peak last month.
Scotsman & Marcus - thanks!

thanks for the info.... sad but i guess not unexpected about the snowpack in the cirque receding away to almost nuthin

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6724
september-7-frying-pan-glacier-sort-of
AndyMartin
2009-09-08 19:12:50