October 15 OcTAYberfest, Ruth (Baker area)
10/15/11
WA Cascades West Slopes North (Mt Baker)
10504
18
Our initial 5 of Telemack, Dirtnerd, Mosetick, Danielle and me coincidentally met Aelcapone + dog and Ben at the parking lot and set of hoofing at a leisure hour of 8. The longish dry walk was made easier by the spectacular beauty of the valley newly dusted with snow above about 5k. There was snow in the steep root-grabber gully section above Hannegan Pass but not enough snow to be useful. We were happy to see skinnable snow (and that would be skiable on the return just above that gully), so it was easy to go around the subpeak and to the saddle. Then perfect skinning all the way to the summit, thanks Dirtnerd for setting the skin track.
At the summit we were buffetted by winds of 1 or 2 mph as we had a picnic and admired the views. Dirtnerd pointed out and named all the peaks of interest. We heard two massive avalanches in the direction of Shuksan but could not see the action, likely they were on the far side of the ridge.
The descent was bliss, a few inches of powder over the crust of last years snow. We skied to several hundred feet below the saddle, admired our tracks on Ruth above, went up to the wind lip E of the sub peak, then enjoyed a last traversing descent to the top of the gully.
The walk out is always way longer then the way in, but we then had some pizza and beer therapy at the Beer Shrine which was great as always. Surely there are pix to follow.
Best October ski day ever!
At the summit we were buffetted by winds of 1 or 2 mph as we had a picnic and admired the views. Dirtnerd pointed out and named all the peaks of interest. We heard two massive avalanches in the direction of Shuksan but could not see the action, likely they were on the far side of the ridge.
The descent was bliss, a few inches of powder over the crust of last years snow. We skied to several hundred feet below the saddle, admired our tracks on Ruth above, went up to the wind lip E of the sub peak, then enjoyed a last traversing descent to the top of the gully.
The walk out is always way longer then the way in, but we then had some pizza and beer therapy at the Beer Shrine which was great as always. Surely there are pix to follow.
Best October ski day ever!
A very excellent day, and thanks to James for hosting us at his house.
New snow was up to 8". I've never had over-the-knee shots in October. Superb turns on the upper mountain.
New snow was up to 8". I've never had over-the-knee shots in October. Superb turns on the upper mountain.
What an excellent day for Ruth Mountain! This was my first trip there, and it was perfect! A truly great day with great friends, weather and views. Thank you Travertine for being an excellent host and driving! Dirtnerd, set a wonderful skin track too! This is also my first TAY trip that has included someone younger than me. <shrug> Anyway the skiing was amazing and I'm looking forward to tackling Ruth Mountain again in the future.
I'm in the process of some infrastructure upgrades to my hardware at home, so I have no choice at the moment but to use a third-party service to host my photos for the time being:
Ruth Mountain - October 15th, 2011
I'm in the process of some infrastructure upgrades to my hardware at home, so I have no choice at the moment but to use a third-party service to host my photos for the time being:
Ruth Mountain - October 15th, 2011
Chris, thanks for posting the pix, nice gallery. I'm definitely grabbing some of them.
Wow is ruth crevasse free for this time of year! Nice work!
There was one big crevasse, in the usual spot climbers right of and a bit below the cliff, in the bowl between the cliff and the wind lip. We stayed entirely out of the bowl because there are always crevasses there, and even though we could not see any others, they sure were there last year and presumably they are lurking even if they got a good filling in last winter.
author=mosetick link=topic=21995.msg94097#msg94097 date=1318811809">I'm in the process of some infrastructure upgrades to my hardware at home, so I have no choice at the moment but to use a third-party service to host my photos for the time being:
Ruth Mountain - October 15th, 2011
Definitely digging the photos.
Beautiful Post! I've been dreaming of Ruth Mountain for sometime now and the views look amazing. (sigh) Some day...
Love this one -- hard to beat that valley for views:
author=mosetick link=topic=21995.msg94097#msg94097 date=1318811809">
I'm in the process of some infrastructure upgrades to my hardware at home, so I have no choice at the moment but to use a third-party service to host my photos for the time being:
Ruth Mountain - October 15th, 2011
In the last picture Are those dynafits on a splitboard? Interesting. How do they work for you? Any other pictures of the hardware for switching to ride mode?
what a great trip!!!!!
haven't seen snow like that since April
great day with clear skies, sparkling snow, excellent views
great company!! so many interesting people in the group. TAY never fails to deliver when I'm looking for partners
haven't had such a fun ski trip in a while. Thanks to everyone for making it so fun.
I'll try to post pics when i get a chance (great pics Chris!!!)
(going to stop writing now before i use the word great another time)
haven't seen snow like that since April
great day with clear skies, sparkling snow, excellent views
great company!! so many interesting people in the group. TAY never fails to deliver when I'm looking for partners
haven't had such a fun ski trip in a while. Thanks to everyone for making it so fun.
I'll try to post pics when i get a chance (great pics Chris!!!)
(going to stop writing now before i use the word great another time)
author=jpLingo link=topic=21995.msg94113#msg94113 date=1318826250">
In the last picture Are those dynafits on a splitboard? Interesting. How do they work for you? Any other pictures of the hardware for switching to ride mode?
Yes, those are Dynafits on a splitboard. You will need to talk to Alecapone about the setup. I was simply enamored by his setup and handiwork, so I had to document it with a couple photos. If you are wondering how efficient it seems to be, I would have to guess Alecapone, would say "very efficient."
Thanks to all for the compliments, and Marcus for posting a great photo into this trip page for me!
Great day to be in the mountains, sorry we missed out on the fun.
Hopefully we can make it next year. :D
Gary and Jan
Hopefully we can make it next year. :D
Gary and Jan
what a fortuitous start to my first winter in the pnw!
it was great fun meeting you all and sharing the amazement of superlative early season snow.
as excited as i was to ride, i still managed to snap a few quick photos.
check out the album for the rest...
including some shots from the day prior, some top notch "sloppy seconds" on heliotrope
i hope to make some turns with you folks again, and that they will be as great as these!
it was great fun meeting you all and sharing the amazement of superlative early season snow.
as excited as i was to ride, i still managed to snap a few quick photos.
check out the album for the rest...
including some shots from the day prior, some top notch "sloppy seconds" on heliotrope
i hope to make some turns with you folks again, and that they will be as great as these!
author=James Wells link=topic=21995.msg94104#msg94104 date=1318819874]
There was one big crevasse, in the usual spot climbers right of and a bit below the cliff, in the bowl between the cliff and the wind lip. We stayed entirely out of the bowl because there are always crevasses there, and even though we could not see any others, they sure were there last year and presumably they are lurking even if they got a good filling in last winter.
Looks pretty clean considering some years it looks like this:
http://www.summitpost.org/this-picture-was-taken-sept/70586/c-150890
Sweet turns. More snow on the way!
author=Brian C link=topic=21995.msg94198#msg94198 date=1319048488]
Looks pretty clean considering some years it looks like this:
http://www.summitpost.org/this-picture-was-taken-sept/70586/c-150890
Sweet turns. More snow on the way!
Brian, thanks for the great picture of a more typical October. On the way up I kept saying "Okay, we're going to come to the first crevasse soon" but none to be seen until finally just one. Your picture clearly shows the preferred route: Go up the rock spine until it gives out, then from the last blob of rock, angle up and to the right, ending up just a little climber's right of the snow ridge and entirely out of the bowl that the big cliff looks down over.
author=bs. link=topic=21995.msg94180#msg94180 date=1318998112]
as excited as i was to ride, i still managed to snap a few quick photos.
I love that first one, such a great top of the world feel looking down into the valley. On a view day, it's hard to beat Ruth. Great running into you guys and look forward to seeing you next time,
Hey folks, Good to meet everyone up there last week. I finally go round to posting my photos from the day.
They are here:
http://alasdairturner.blogspot.com/
See you in the mountains again soon,
Alasdair
They are here:
http://alasdairturner.blogspot.com/
See you in the mountains again soon,
Alasdair
thanks for all the photos, everyone! it's great to see so many different perspectives on a memorable early season day.
i put together a panorama of baker that i shot while climbing heliotrope the day before ruth. what an imposing mountain!
i put together a panorama of baker that i shot while climbing heliotrope the day before ruth. what an imposing mountain!
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