September 29, 2012, Sholes and Rainbow Glaciers
9/29/12
2514
1
Needing some September turns, I headed up to the Sholes and Rainbow Glaciers with my friend Matt today.
We left Artist Point in pea-soup conditions with a light rain at about 8:45AM, hoping the clouds would break over the course of the day. Far few snow patches on the summer trail than one month ago so we stuck to that route all the way to Camp Kiser, arriving in about 2 hours and 15 minutes with practically no views along the way. Once there, the clouds parted nicely affording views of the Sholes as well as Baker. We dropped a few hundred feet down onto the Sholes and then started traversing to the saddle between the Sholes and Rainbow Glaciers. There was no freeze last night and the top layer was soft enough to make skiing on the moderate sun cups tolerable.
Looking up from down on the Sholes, it doesn't look feasible to traverse over straight from Camp Kiser to the saddle without dropping down first and it no longer looks feasible to ski off the Portals onto the Sholes. From the saddle, we had views of the Baker summit as the clouds moved in and out. We then dropped onto the Rainbow Glacier and were able to get in a 700 foot run on a pretty good snow surface that was overall a better ski than on the Sholes. By the time we got back up to the saddle with thoughts of a second run down the Rainbow, the clouds had rolled in again and visibility went way down. We opted to do one run down the Sholes and then head out. We went fall line from the saddle down to the toe of the glacier and again found a pretty good snow surface with the smoothest surface in the lower few hundred feet of what was about a 600-700 foot run. From there we traversed back up to Camp Kiser and walked out in more pea soup, arriving back at the cars 1 hour and 45 minutes after leaving the camp.
I've never skied in September before so I don't have much basis for comparison but given over 60 days without precipitation and the late time of the year, I was pleasantly surprised by the skiing. 1 more month to go for a full year of turns!
We left Artist Point in pea-soup conditions with a light rain at about 8:45AM, hoping the clouds would break over the course of the day. Far few snow patches on the summer trail than one month ago so we stuck to that route all the way to Camp Kiser, arriving in about 2 hours and 15 minutes with practically no views along the way. Once there, the clouds parted nicely affording views of the Sholes as well as Baker. We dropped a few hundred feet down onto the Sholes and then started traversing to the saddle between the Sholes and Rainbow Glaciers. There was no freeze last night and the top layer was soft enough to make skiing on the moderate sun cups tolerable.
Looking up from down on the Sholes, it doesn't look feasible to traverse over straight from Camp Kiser to the saddle without dropping down first and it no longer looks feasible to ski off the Portals onto the Sholes. From the saddle, we had views of the Baker summit as the clouds moved in and out. We then dropped onto the Rainbow Glacier and were able to get in a 700 foot run on a pretty good snow surface that was overall a better ski than on the Sholes. By the time we got back up to the saddle with thoughts of a second run down the Rainbow, the clouds had rolled in again and visibility went way down. We opted to do one run down the Sholes and then head out. We went fall line from the saddle down to the toe of the glacier and again found a pretty good snow surface with the smoothest surface in the lower few hundred feet of what was about a 600-700 foot run. From there we traversed back up to Camp Kiser and walked out in more pea soup, arriving back at the cars 1 hour and 45 minutes after leaving the camp.
I've never skied in September before so I don't have much basis for comparison but given over 60 days without precipitation and the late time of the year, I was pleasantly surprised by the skiing. 1 more month to go for a full year of turns!
