Home > Trip Reports > September 23, Ptarmigan Ridge / Sholes Glacier

September 23, Ptarmigan Ridge / Sholes Glacier

9/15/12
WA Cascades West Slopes North (Mt Baker)
2585
4
Posted by wildwildnw on 9/25/12 4:04am
(Couldn't get HTML / BBC to work, so some photos attached below. Full set at: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjCePz6W )

First post but a longtime reader. 9 months down, 3 to go!

Had a sweet day of hiking and skiing / snowboarding on Baker's Ptarmagin Ridge Sunday. Some smokey haze and low fog in the morning, but the bluebird came out in the afternoon. A few other skiers and hikers out but certainly not a crowd.

Hiked up to the access of Sholes Glacier by noon. Snow was soft and only slightly sun-cupped on the glacier, but several large areas of crevasses roughly half-way down the glacier made it not worth the hike back out from the bottom in our opinion. Some other skiers looked like they were going after it though.

Decided to lap and session the series of rolling (and sometimes near-vertical steep) lips skiers-right of the trail.

After some much-needed air time, we caught five different lines back to the last ridge that bisects the trail before the parking lot, all skiers right of the trail and varying from roughly 75 meters to around 500 meters in length. The upper line and bottom two lines were riddled with kitchen-sink-sized-sun-cups, but the middle lines (see photo attachments below) were soft, long and ripe for carving.

Should be decent patches for the next couple weeks, weather dependent. Cheers,
[quote="Randy"">Fixed it for ya

First post but a longtime reader. 9 months down, 3 to go!

Had a sweet day of hiking and skiing / snowboarding on Baker's Ptarmagin Ridge Sunday. Some smokey haze and low fog in the morning, but the bluebird came out in the afternoon. A few other skiers and hikers out but certainly not a crowd.

Hiked up to the access of Sholes Glacier by noon. Snow was soft and only slightly sun-cupped on the glacier, but several large areas of crevasses roughly half-way down the glacier made it not worth the hike back out from the bottom in our opinion. Some other skiers looked like they were going after it though.

Higher by wildwildnw, on Flickr

Decided to lap and session the series of rolling (and sometimes steep) lips skiers-right of the trail.


Lip Session by wildwildnw, on Flickr


Mt. Shuksan view by wildwildnw, on Flickr

After some much-needed air time, we caught five different lines back to the last ridge that bisects the trail before the parking lot, all skiers right of the trail and varying from roughly 75 meters to 500 meters. The upper line and bottom two lines were riddled with kitchen-sink-sized-sun-cups, but the middle (see photos below) were soft, long and ripe for carving.

Upper line:


Turns All Year by wildwildnw, on Flickr

Upper, and sweet middle and lower lines. We got one more on the other side of the middle ridge in the pic, but it was the worst of the day between rock land mines and sun cups.


Turns All Year by wildwildnw, on Flickr


Should be decent patches for the next couple weeks, weather dependent. Cheers,


Baker by wildwildnw, on Flickr

Awesome thanks man! Feel free to delete my first post if possible so it's not duplicated.


Lip Session by wildwildnw, on Flickr


Pemco Northwest Profile Number 143: September Skiing Shirtless Twintip Tindy Grab Guy

You're one of us ... a little different.

author=wolfs link=topic=25675.msg108518#msg108518 date=1348605310]
Pemco Northwest Profile Number 143: September Skiing Shirtless Twintip Tindy Grab Guy

You're one of us ... a little different.


Too funny! ;D Thumbs up for the twin tip grab guy NW profile #143.

I know of a few who would pull that off as well, but I never thought of the Pemco commercials. Classic!

Reply to this TR

10258
september-23-ptarmigan-ridge-sholes-glacier
wildwildnw
2012-09-25 11:04:39