June 21, 2012, Garibaldi, so close

Tobae, Dan, Dave, and I drove to the trailhead on Wednesday night.  The road is terrible !  Made it to within 50 ft of snow at about 3850.  Skinned up to camp at Brohm Ridge at about 5700 with weather coming in.  Woke up to ok weather, summit was in the clouds, but visibility on the glacier was good.  No overnight freeze.  3-4 storm slab avalanches from earlier in the week higher on the mountain and wet slab avalanche evidence lower in the valley also from earlier in the week.  Snow was super saturated, ski penetration 3-10 cm, pole penetration ..........endless? 3' in places.  We threaded our way carefully on low angle terrain.  Bergschrund spanning the face.  Visibility poor, but looked like one could go around it climbers right.  Had to cross a steep spot to get there above a crevasse, icefall, and cliff band.  Said NO THANKS, turned tail and skied down from about 3-400' below summit. 

We were so close to the summit, but all agree that turning around was the right thing to do.  Uncertain possibilities of a wet slab avalanche, but certain outcome if it did.........