August 1, 2010, Coleman Glacier Corn and Red Haze

This should have been posted with the August reports - Sorry about that.

Peter and I skied the Roman Wall/ Coleman Glacier on Sunday and the skiing was great!
We planned for a 2:00 descent so left our tent at about 7:30. The forest fires at Chelan created a pretty thick red haze around the mountain. Visibility was pretty limited to Baker itself with no views in any direction from the route or summit. Our late start put us at the summit alone just after noon and we did think we were going to be the last party to head down until a couple of groups came up from east side routes. The summit was standing room only at 1:30!
The snow on the Roman Wall has softened to perfection by 2:15 €“ coarse corn snow on a flat surface if you adjusted your line to avoid the various boot packs and suncups. Crevasses are still avoidable for the rest of the run and the snow is fast except for a few sticky patches on the low-slope pitches. Suncups are small on  the lower slops and were soft and skiable by 3:00 when we finished our run.