June 4, 2011, Sulphide Glacier
6/4/11
4854
10
Ben, John and I left Seattle 3am Saturday morning to ski the sulphide glacier. After a quick gear shuffle and some last minute packing, we left Shannon Lake trailhead about 5:45. You could start skinning about 1 mile in, just before the first switch back. The snow was fairly soft for much of the route, except just below the col that take you around to the glacier proper were the route is actually in the shade. I would have preferred to be a couple hours earlier since we could tell we would end up with some mush on the way down. However, it turned out we would have just had to wait anyways for the congested summit pyramid to clear out. One trio of skiers said they waited two hours for a guided group to clear out. We got lucky and had it all to ourselves at about 1pm. Took skis to the summit, but down climbed about 40 feet to strap in. The snow in the summit gully was just right, as was the corn down to the flats. Below 7600 feet it was glop and difficult to ski. The "dodge large treewells run" through the old growth was surprisingly fun.
Beers, a swim at baker lake, and a burger in mt vernon topped off an excellent day in the mountain... it soo nice to wear sandals and shorts after a long day skiing.
Beers, a swim at baker lake, and a burger in mt vernon topped off an excellent day in the mountain... it soo nice to wear sandals and shorts after a long day skiing.
Way to get after it!
Gorgeous photos...
author=BigRed link=topic=21053.msg89993#msg899
Beers, a swim at baker lake
Job well done! That's what we should have done, too. I was one of the climbers/skiers you passed in the middle of the summit gully on your way up.
>it turned out we would have just had to wait anyways for the congested summit pyramid to clear out.>
I don't know how long you might have had to wait but let me use this occasion to vent: there was a Mountain Madness party of 7 coming down as I was halfway up the summit gully, and one of the guides was teaching them to build snow-bollard anchors. Fine--except that he shoveled snow back over his head without any regard for those underneath. I got hit in the chest by a beer-can size chunk of ice and barely dodged another one that would have bloodied my face. I yelled at the guy to be more careful (all he had to do was shovel snow to climber's left) and he showed me the finger. When I confronted his sidekick a little higher, the first thing she said was "We have seven clients" (as though that made any difference) and then started giving me a lecture on the benefits of wearing a helmet even though I had told her I got hit in the chest and narrowly missed being hit in the face. Mountain Madness does not own this--or any other mountain.
Niko
Endagering others and then being rude is not a good way to increase your client base. He sounds more like a French guide in the Alps.
Niko,thanks for the report. It would be wise to report the incident to Mountain Madness, so they can respond to it internally and/or to Ranger district for "outside regulation" .
In either case it serves the purpose of weeding out bad behavior (that is being implicitly taught to clients) in increasingly congested back-country (that we all are part of).
As much as it might be uncomfortable to make that extra step, it does go to the people who MIGHT do something about it ( as TAY members have fairly weak tendency to hire guides and therefore affect their revenue ...) Cheers, may corn snow be plentiful to us all
In either case it serves the purpose of weeding out bad behavior (that is being implicitly taught to clients) in increasingly congested back-country (that we all are part of).
As much as it might be uncomfortable to make that extra step, it does go to the people who MIGHT do something about it ( as TAY members have fairly weak tendency to hire guides and therefore affect their revenue ...) Cheers, may corn snow be plentiful to us all
Contact Mark or Jeremy at Mountain Madness. I am sure they would like to know about this. They are good people and try and run a top notch business.
^^^Yeah... I know multiple MM guides and they are all top notch and exceptionally courteous... As mentioned above, Jeremy would want to know about this... It is certainly not the norm for Mountain Madness: 800 328-5925
Thanks for the heads up, Niko. Feel free to call me directly at the number above if you'd like. This trip just finished and I'll be debriefing over the coming days. Cheers,
Jeremy
Jeremy
I am heading up there for the first time on thurs. Just curious if you encountered any crevasse issues, was roping up the norm for the summit pyramid?
author=niko link=topic=21053.msg90004#msg90004 date=1307341559]
When I confronted his sidekick a little higher, the first thing she said was "We have seven clients" (as though that made any difference) and then started giving me a lecture on the benefits of wearing a helmet even though I had told her I got hit in the chest and narrowly missed being hit in the face. Mountain Madness does not own this--or any other mountain.
Niko
LOL...I'm sorry, but I was laughing at this. Ultimately, she's right. It's your choice not to wear a helmet, even though we all know it is a safer practice. I make the same decision usually. And from my limited experience, I've learned that if you "tailgate" a big group, you're bound to rear-end them or their tires will kick a rock at you or something. I heard about this instance from the other side of things through various avenues (as some MM guides are climbing friends of mine) and I would say that to be fair, we also need to present our TAY community in a respectable fashion. Too many times I see TAYers running around acting like they own the mountains or set the climbing guidelines for them as well. Like you said, NO one owns the mountians and we all seek to enjoy them - some people even feel the need to pay to do so. Thank goodness there are people patient enough to let them experience the mountains we are so blessed with. If you've never guided trips for an organization before, stop and think before you react and speak. Of course the number of clients makes no difference to you if you've never guided. Mountains are also great places to learn patience.
I'm not excusing the incident, merely saying that there are two or more sides to every "story" and before jumping to conclusions, it's always a good idea to hear all sides.
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