Home > Trip Reports > August 14, Ruth and Icy

August 14, Ruth and Icy

8/15/10
WA Cascades West Slopes North (Mt Baker)
3033
4
Posted by chmnyboy on 8/14/10 11:56pm
On Friday afternoon I got the triple-combo-slammer of traffic issues, hitting the opening of the Hood Canal Bridge, massive ferry lines, and standstill traffic in Everett. Since it took 7.5 hrs to get to the Hannegan TH from Port Angeles, skier8484 and I thought about sleeping at the car. Ultimately, the appeal of watching the meteor shower from the pass won out and we hoofed it up the trail, arriving at camp around 11.

The next day we were able to stay on route and on schedule, leaving the pass at 6 and making the straight-forward climb to the top of Ruth by 8. Hiking into the SW bowl, we quickly found the scramble down the the Ruth-Icy saddle where Brian swapped to shoes and I stubbornly tromped down in my ski boots. The skin up Icy was easy and we were able to make it to the highest skiable point by 10am. The awesome ski down had only tiny suncups that were a non-issue to skiing. We were back atop Ruth by noon where we ripped the sweet corn and followed the hiker's trail out, getting a few more vert on various patches to the pass.

At this point it got really hot, so we booked it to the car, running into numerous hikers sweating their way up in the hot afternoon sun.

Interesting enough, we didn't see anyone above the pass all day long. Still plenty to be had out there.

More pics (see photos 66-80 in this album): http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2604198&id=10704841&l=ccd0228574





Sweet!


Awesome skies on friday night, Eh?

Beautiful day up there. You passed my wife, son and I on the ridgeline below the Ruth Glacier on your way out. We weren't skiing but we admired your tracks.

author=alecapone link=topic=17307.msg72955#msg72955 date=1281886323]
Sweet!
Awesome skies on friday night, Eh?


The shooting stars were good; the sweet, sweet August turns were better ;)

Holy Crap!  That looks fun!  Good pictures and write up.  Thanks for the inspiration.

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august-14-ruth-and-icy
chmnyboy
2010-08-15 06:56:31