Home > Trip Reports > Glacier peak ski, July 21

Glacier peak ski, July 21

7/15/12
WA Cascades West Slopes Central
4132
4
Posted by Ldawson on 7/24/12 3:57am
Skied Glacier peak last Thurs-Sat. Had a blast! The approach wasn't too bad, the forest service was doing a lot of work on the trail, cutting up some enormous logs. The trail is pretty cruiser now, with only a few sections of downed logs towards the end. There's still a lot of snow up there, we were able to stay on snow for much of the trip after White Mountain. The peak skied great, incredible corn all the way down. We had the whole mountain to ourselves.

I've been wanting to get up there forever, it's an incredible area. Here's a link to my trip report with some pictures:

http://www.wildsnow.com/7866/glacier-peak-ski-climb-washington/
Outstanding.  8)

Great TR, been thinking about this one for awhile now.

Nice one Louie. seems like you're having a pretty good summer...

I'm surprised I haven't seen an updated report for Glacier Peak in a while. I hiked in that area last weekend and saw seven skiers (in different groups). Conditions look pretty good, but a lot of the lower stuff is melted. The section between White Pass and the ridge connected to White Mountain is too broken up to ski. You might be able to ski the other side of Red Pass, but who knows how much has melted. Doing so will probably mean some additional elevation gain, but you would be on skis earlier. If you wanted to do some laps (especially if you don't want to climb Glacier) then the north side of White Mountain looks pretty good. It can be accessed via the ridge connecting Red Pass to White Mountain. Probably even easier (and definitely worth checking out) is accessing that area via Red Pass, especially since that trail is nice and full of flowers.

I don't have any great pictures showing the snow conditions, but this one might help. This was taken from Portal Peak. The highest peak in the foreground is White Mountain. To the right, obscured by a rock, is Red Pass.

The only picture I have from the other side (from White Mountain) is a panorama. Portal Peak is the highest in the foreground to the left of center. Just to the left of it is Red Pass. You can see the broken snow, that appears to work -- it looks better if you stay south, closer to White Mountain (which you can't see in this picture, since a ridge blocks the view).

Reply to this TR

10170
glacier-peak-ski-july-21
Ldawson
2012-07-24 10:57:06