Home > Trip Reports > Heliotrope September 25

Heliotrope September 25

9/15/09
WA Cascades West Slopes North (Mt Baker)
3276
5
Posted by James Wells on 9/25/09 3:19pm
The road is fine, the trail is in great shape.  The snow field is 60 vf less than last year (940 vf instead of 1000).

After a morning of work and then getting my daughter from kindergarten to preschool, it was time to blast from town at 12:15.  Setting hoofs on trail by 1:47, what a fantastic deal to have such a place so close that it is even a place to go for the afternoon.  No sign of the road carnage, they have taken care of it.

Up above the usual camping spots I got suckered into going high, it's so tempting because you can see the snow up there.  But, it is crevassed and dirty.  So traversing and downclimbing to the right and the best place to be, which is the ridge on the far climber's right.  The ridge itself is definitely the best line right now.  To climber's right of the ridge it is shattered and crevassed, and down in the bowl on the left it is icy and there are some crevasses as well.  Just one crevasse on the way up the ridge, just about 50' short of the top, but it's easy to go around to climber€™s left.  Just one set of turns, must have been a prior day because the suncups had set up over the tracks.

The snow was perfect for going up in the middle of the afternoon, would take a crampon and grab but not too sloppy.  The small suncups were soft and the run was going to be good.  Not skinnable, I was glad I left them (thanks to Dan for the beta about this on the other thread).

After a short picnic and fantastic views it was time for a smooth run.  The top 700 vf was great, just following the line of the ridge, right at the shadow line.  This is the part to do laps, I did not have time.  Then it was down and right into the bowl, dirty, icy, a few little crevasses.  Ugly and not a lot of fun.  The ice was not the problem as much as getting hung on the dirty patches.  The only reason to ski this is to save the effort of booting.

At the bottom I checked and, oh no, just 940 vf.  I was so annoyed I side stepped up 60€™ and another 20€™ for insurance, then turned and slid back on down the ice/mud mix.  Now it€™s done.  Nothing left but to walk back out, just a little easier than the way up and fully appreciating what an insanely beautiful location this is.

Pix at:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2038284&id=1250884416&l=600f1fc64b








Good one, James.  The view down your run looks like reasonable snow. 
Well-framed shots of the Cascade mountain goat, red-bearded variety!  ::)
Think it'll be worth shooting for in a couple of weeks? 

Oh yes, I'd say it's the place to go for October.  Maybe even hope for some new.  I'd better get a day on the calendar soon because I'll be away caving from October 22-31.  Let me know if you have a specific day or weekend in mind.

Good one!

Thanks for the update!

Good spot for october turns!

After mid-July, always take that ridge climbers right.  Tempting as the snow straight up looks, it's really not that far to go and it's always better to the right....

I'm looking forward to looking at it next month!  Thanks for the TR.

Also did a quick blitz up the ridge this afternoon (Sunday).  Probably was a half hour late on the snow, since I didn't top out until 4:45, so pretty bumpy and hard.  But incredibly beautiful.  Some pictures later.  Thanks for the beta. 

Reply to this TR

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heliotrope-september-25
James Wells
2009-09-25 22:19:54