July 4, 2011, Sunrise Third Burroughs
7/4/11
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
1643
0
Perhaps in response to "come on people" I made Sunrise the destination for my traditional July 4ish ski. Maybe whatever cog clicked in the NPS brain will only click this way this one year, and this opportunity to drive to a snowy Sunrise could be a once in lifetime deal? Gotta sieze that opportunity.
Started without clear destination or route plan, although was more interested in tour than Chutefest type agenda. Parking lot not very full, makes sense because most non skiers would see all the snow and no open trails and just leave. They did however have the Lodge open to sell hot dogs et al, hooray for NPS commerce. The one open "trail" was the road they'd plowed to the generator station to get the diesel in. Many confused tourists seemed to be wandering down this road, like little hamsters going down the one Habitrail pipe that's open, only to find it's an unimpressive dead end and head back again.
I hate sidehilling so right at start dropped towards Shadow Lake and Sunrise Camp rather than trying for Frozen Lake saddle. From here there was a set of bowls to climb and traverse then pretty mellow route up left skyline of First Burroughs, following recent skin tracks. Less steep than the traditional summer trail route. Couldn't wrap around south side due to scrubby rock ridge but could eventually get over top without harming tundra. Did a small lap here back East because it looked good and didn't think would return that way. Then dropped sideways into basin south and reclimbed to far end of Second Burroughs. A steep kinda exposed sidehill snowfield here on south side worked to get me to below Second Third saddle, but did require couple hundred feet of steep escape. I was feeling pretty clever about this route until I saw that nearly all the W-facing 'backside' of Second Burroughs still had snow that I could've reached by just walking a few feet over the Second Burroughs crest - this is where I'd always had to walk the bare ground trail on all previous trips!
Occasional wind was helpful to keep this from being a too hot day. Snow here just didn't seem to get as sticky in heat as the stuff on Paradise side had been on a couple of other recent trips. Worked my way over to Third Burroughs, excellent views over to Curtis Ridge etc. Skied down the obvious N facing slope that leads into Granite Creek area, this is the route I learned from following Robie's tracks a couple years ago.
The excellent N facing slope below Third Burroughs
Looking @ Interglacier from Third Burroughs, still looking nice
Then ascended basin and over ridge to another N facing decent angled slope that drops into upper Berkeley Park. Skating on lumpy snow and then angle ascent to get back. Decided to again avoid the hated Frozen Lake saddle and ascent to far E end First Burroughs, finding the very last of snow that enabled getting to the E facing bowls. Dropped this at a point just where cornice was trivial. Favorite turns of the day - nice and steep. Briefly stymied by small intermediate cliff band but then got another nice steep shot down to flats where the old auto camp road ends now. Could then manage to travel no-skins all the way until that road route met the plowed generator station road, and then just carried up that (snow in this area is lumpy and it's just easier to take the path of least resistance and walk road).
I guess I was on heels of a couple other TAYers that did this same thing on the 4th (Amar, Jim Oker?) but as usual I was the late shift.
I swear there is some kind of weird time space warp in this area because it took me 4 hours to get to Third Burroughs and only 2.5 back. And that is with a couple thousand feet of regain on way back to get out of the N facing slope drops and basins, whereas the way in provided much shorter descents. Generally it's lots of sideways to get to Third Burroughs, and you'd think it would take about the same time either wa
I was VERY pleasantly surprised by how good the corn was on all kinds of aspects and placements. Only where there was rock nearby to warm and make rotten was any skiing slope less than good. However, there was a fair bit of tortuous pitted snow in places where it was flat, and some pretty bumpy runnels on slopes lower than 7K where you might need to traverse.
Started without clear destination or route plan, although was more interested in tour than Chutefest type agenda. Parking lot not very full, makes sense because most non skiers would see all the snow and no open trails and just leave. They did however have the Lodge open to sell hot dogs et al, hooray for NPS commerce. The one open "trail" was the road they'd plowed to the generator station to get the diesel in. Many confused tourists seemed to be wandering down this road, like little hamsters going down the one Habitrail pipe that's open, only to find it's an unimpressive dead end and head back again.
I hate sidehilling so right at start dropped towards Shadow Lake and Sunrise Camp rather than trying for Frozen Lake saddle. From here there was a set of bowls to climb and traverse then pretty mellow route up left skyline of First Burroughs, following recent skin tracks. Less steep than the traditional summer trail route. Couldn't wrap around south side due to scrubby rock ridge but could eventually get over top without harming tundra. Did a small lap here back East because it looked good and didn't think would return that way. Then dropped sideways into basin south and reclimbed to far end of Second Burroughs. A steep kinda exposed sidehill snowfield here on south side worked to get me to below Second Third saddle, but did require couple hundred feet of steep escape. I was feeling pretty clever about this route until I saw that nearly all the W-facing 'backside' of Second Burroughs still had snow that I could've reached by just walking a few feet over the Second Burroughs crest - this is where I'd always had to walk the bare ground trail on all previous trips!
Occasional wind was helpful to keep this from being a too hot day. Snow here just didn't seem to get as sticky in heat as the stuff on Paradise side had been on a couple of other recent trips. Worked my way over to Third Burroughs, excellent views over to Curtis Ridge etc. Skied down the obvious N facing slope that leads into Granite Creek area, this is the route I learned from following Robie's tracks a couple years ago.
The excellent N facing slope below Third Burroughs
Looking @ Interglacier from Third Burroughs, still looking nice
Then ascended basin and over ridge to another N facing decent angled slope that drops into upper Berkeley Park. Skating on lumpy snow and then angle ascent to get back. Decided to again avoid the hated Frozen Lake saddle and ascent to far E end First Burroughs, finding the very last of snow that enabled getting to the E facing bowls. Dropped this at a point just where cornice was trivial. Favorite turns of the day - nice and steep. Briefly stymied by small intermediate cliff band but then got another nice steep shot down to flats where the old auto camp road ends now. Could then manage to travel no-skins all the way until that road route met the plowed generator station road, and then just carried up that (snow in this area is lumpy and it's just easier to take the path of least resistance and walk road).
I guess I was on heels of a couple other TAYers that did this same thing on the 4th (Amar, Jim Oker?) but as usual I was the late shift.
I swear there is some kind of weird time space warp in this area because it took me 4 hours to get to Third Burroughs and only 2.5 back. And that is with a couple thousand feet of regain on way back to get out of the N facing slope drops and basins, whereas the way in provided much shorter descents. Generally it's lots of sideways to get to Third Burroughs, and you'd think it would take about the same time either wa
I was VERY pleasantly surprised by how good the corn was on all kinds of aspects and placements. Only where there was rock nearby to warm and make rotten was any skiing slope less than good. However, there was a fair bit of tortuous pitted snow in places where it was flat, and some pretty bumpy runnels on slopes lower than 7K where you might need to traverse.
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