April 30, 2005, MRNP Interglacier

After a lot of discussion and schedule checking we decided to give up on an overnight and head down to Glacier Basin and the interglacier.  After a brief delay getting around the police and fire trucks tending to the fire next door to Rick's, our driver, we set out and were on the GB trail at 10am.  White River Rd opened on Fri 4/29.  It's bumpy from winter heaves, but no washouts.  2 cars in the lot.  3 guys from Tacoma headed out before us.  Mostly discontiguous snow and a couple blowdowns until the last mile, which was consistently skiable with a couple 'imaginative' stream crossings. The river is well covered.  We overtook the group from Tacoma and then we were passed by a guy from Enumclaw on "skinny" skis.  

There were a few large avalanche debris piles from Mt Ruth in the river and the E side of the Interglacier as well as some smaller ones on the W side.  About 4-6" of not-quite-corn over a light crust.  Crevasses all well-covered.

The group of 3 stopped just below the large rock and headed down.  Two of our group opted to stop a couple hundred ft above that.  Garrett and I kept on to the Prow.  The guy from Enumclaw was skiing off the prow as we got there.  A thin crust over 4-6" of the same not-quite-corn.  About half way up, the sun had came out and we baked all the way up to the prow.  Spectacular views of the Emmons. Untracked and looking to be in good shape.

The crust made things a little tricky for the first 3rd, and broad runnels had formed (didn[t notice this at all on the way up) but the snow was consistent throughout.  A great day.  8 skiers tracked it up pretty well.  On the way out we made the mistake of skiing past the point where you pick up the trail thinking we could avoid the crossings, but there's no good way to get back up on the trail and we spent about 1/2 and hour at it.