Home > Trip Reports > 11 July 2011, Sinister Pk NF via Ptarmigan Traverse

11 July 2011, Sinister Pk NF via Ptarmigan Traverse

7/15/11
WA Cascades West Slopes North (Mt Baker)
13161
19
Posted by hedonaut on 7/22/11 7:07am
Jon and I enjoyed a 4-day trip out-and-back on the Ptarmigan Traverse, culminating in Sinister Peak (9th through 12th).  Walk miles of road and lowland trail, or stay high and scenic on skis? We opted for the latter, although weather somewhat constrained the views.  Peaks skied included Sentinel's short but sweet north face, Sinister's steep and aesthetic north face (which I€™d seen a picture of from Tom Sjolseth€™s recent trip€”didn€™t know if it had been skied or not, but it just looked so good), and Dome's standard (NNE?) route.  Weather was great first 2 days, second two were forecasted to be mostly cloudy and 20% pop respectively, but were worse than that.  What a trip.  Physical, scenic, sketched, rewarding, sunny, gliding, skinskinskinning, turns, gliding, resting, rewarding, climbing, steep scenic turns, gliding, climbing, turns, climbing, blindturnjoy, socked in, pollen-fouled skis and skins, postholio, gritty, drizzle/rain/sleet, scenic, turns, exposure, postholio, exhaustion, misguided, success, rewarding, postholio, turns, crikey, debris turns, walk, beer. 
Selected pics below, others found here: https://picasaweb.google.com/ewehrly/2011_07_11PtarmiganTraverseX2?authuser=0&feat=directlink
Sinister's NF on L, Dome on R:


Day 1: we missed the road opening by days, so after a couple miles of road walking dropped down onto the avy effluence and made a beeline to Cascade Pass; hence to Cache Col via the spooky slushy steep exposed traverse below Mixup; thence to Art's Knoll and Middle Cascade Glacier and Spider-Formidable col; and after a brief semi-knackered powwow, pressed on to Yang-yang lakes for camp.
Jon on mixup traverse to cache col:


Looking forward to art's knoll, spider, formidable:


Looking back at J-berg and Cascade pass area peaks:


gunsight, old guard, sentinel, others, le conte from spider-for​midable col; yang-yang lakes are lit lower right:
.

Jon enjoys the final glide down to the lakes:


Day 2: relative rest day, bumped camp up to Sentinel, overlooking S Cascade Glacier.  Climbed Sentinel to suss the next day's route over 4 glaciers and back, then Skied Sentinel's NF in evening light (unfortunately Jon forgot his camera)--v fun turns!

Jon approaches camp on Le Conte Glacier -- Spider background:


Shots from top of Sentinel:
much of next day's (day 3) trip seen here; part of sinister, chickamin gl, dome, dana gl, spire point (glacier pk bkgrnd)


Day 3:
Sizable day.  From Sentinel camp over S Cascade Gl, through White Rock Lakes, to rising traverse to gain Dana Gl, over Dana-Dome col and across Dome Gl to Dome/Chickamin col; then navigate Chickamin Gl to Sinister; find ourselves stymied at Sinister's W ridge (perhaps didn't look hard enough); Jon wasn't feeling the NF of Sinister, so I climbed and skied that with tach in the redline; rejoined Jon below Dome, we climbed and skied that peak with a short belayed section up top; then retraced our route intermittently finding our vestigial tracks, often in nasty ping-pong ball whiteout, reaching S Cascade Gl just before dark (like it mattered--visibility was zilch), found our way to camp before midnight.
Sinister, Chickamin Gl, Dome, Dana Gl


Jon charging up dana glacier


approaching sinister - bkgrnd = chickamin gl, sentinel, old guard, etc.


Dome from NF Sinister: Jon climbing chickamin gl, speck bottom and R of center


Near Dome€™s summit.  Socked-in left is west of the cascade crest;  more broken sky on right is east.  The whiteout on 3.5 of the 4 glaciers this day was vexing.


Day 4: Got up earlier than we wanted to, headed home.  More whiteout navigation at times.
Downclimbing from Cache Col:


I wish I€™d read this page before heading out there, a wealth of history and info.:
http://www.alpenglow.org/climbing/ptarmigan-1953/index.html
Also on Lowell€™s site, learned that he and others skied the NF Sinister--must be a fond memory.

Been wanting to ski the traverse for something like 10 years, waiting for work/weather/pardner window.  Shouldn't have waited so long, but we had an amazing ski trip.  In July.
Completely awesome!  It was cool to see your tracks on the NF of Sinister.  Was this only the second time this face has been skied, and the first solo descent?

Looks like a great trip, weather windows notwithstanding. Thanks for posting that up.

Really enjoyed the link to the Ptarmigin history as well.

Why has this TR only been viewed 55 times?! Phenomenal!! Way to go Eric and Jon...

author=ryanl link=topic=21521.msg92193#msg92193 date=1311380176]
Why has this TR only been viewed 55 times?! Phenomenal!! Way to go Eric and Jon...


Because it was just posted today! 

Awesome work guys, incredible pics.  Love that white-out, sporty downclimbing at Cache col.

The story of the 1953 traverse party is made more poignant by the fact that Tom Miller passed away a few months ago. The following thread has some thoughts about him, including the Miller family's obituary from the Seattle Times:

http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1010693#Post1010693

For years I thought Tom's 1953 party was the second to do the Ptarmigan Traverse. But following Tom's death and the republication of my then-and-now story in The Mountaineer, an earlier expedition came to light. I've summarized an interview with Bob Jones on the following page:

http://www.alpenglow.org/ski-history/notes/comm/jones-bob.html

Thanks for the trip report!

author=Marcus link=topic=21521.msg92194#msg92194 date=1311382383]
Because it was just posted today! 


My bad. Misunderstood an email. "Posted a TR on my trip a few weeks ago" can be interpreted a few ways ;-)

Still......this trip kicks ass. LOVE IT!

:) I didn't even notice the July 11 date -- I assumed it was a 7/21 typo and was amazed at the snow coverage...

Looks like a great trip Eric.  Way to launch in the marginal weather.  Beautiful pictures.  Skiing this is on my to do list.

Impressive. Inspiring.

Excellent trip...I have been drooling over that nf of sinister in the green beckey for years now.

Saw your tracks off of Sinister.  Nice trip!  And to think we just spent 4 days *walking* arround to get there from Steheiken!

Looks like a great trip!  The photos are fantastic.  Way to finally get the work/time/partner puzzle figured out and do it in style.


I've had a friend who'd done it several times keep saying that an out and back ski is the way to do the Ptarmigan, very nice!


Guess I should add this one to my list.  Looks like an amazing trip!  I like the long description of conditions - nice to see you had beer at the end!

Love it! Nicely done Eric.

Strong effort and a bold line!  Congrats!

Cooler than a moose and twice as hairy! Thanks for the TR!

I posted a few more of Eric's pics (not finding my camera was a grave error), along with a couple of reflections about the trip, at nwhikers:  http://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7992585.

To repeat, someone's gotta describe how beautifully Eric styled the NF of Sinister.  Watching from the Chikamin glacier below, my stomach did a backflip as he jumped the E side of the large crack that bisects the NF snow.  Then he huffed up the Chikamin to catch me near the Dome-Chikamin col as the clouds enveloped us.  The forced march back to camp in a whiteout, then a whiteout in the dark, was er..., character-building.

Eric's skills are matched only by his grace and patience with a less-than-skilled ski partner.  It helped make this outing deeply rewarding, instead of the sufferfest it could have been once the clouds moved in.

SO SO SEHK JON AND ERIC!!


There is a shit ton of rad gnargnar out there to be shredded!

That's a lot of work and joy you two! Wow. You guys were moving. Looks like we just missed each other on the ptarmigan.

Lowell, I'll have to read your article. Too bad about Tom. I have his North Cascades book here and I love to look at it.

Reply to this TR

8946
11-july-2011-sinister-pk-nf-via-ptarmigan-traverse
hedonaut
2011-07-22 14:07:21