Home > Trip Reports > May 4-5, 2013, Mt. Logan SlushFest de Mayo

May 4-5, 2013, Mt. Logan SlushFest de Mayo

5/4/13
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Posted by Susan Ashlock on 5/7/13 9:37am
Summary: With the temperatures scheduled to be unseasonably warm (a low of 41 degrees at 7000€™), Carla and I weren€™t sure that Logan would be a great idea for the weekend, but we decided to go for it.  We never had to cross any avalanche paths that we were particularly concerned about.  We were most concerned about the S-facing ascent to Easy Pass on Saturday afternoon, but since we didn€™t get there until 6 p.m. (well after the most significant sun of the day), we felt pretty good about it.

Pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/susanashlock/sets/72157633423142249/with/8716854716/

Approximate timeline:
Saturday:
6:15 a.m. Depart Trailhead.  A couple of guys parked next to us at the trailhead started about 30 minutes before us and we occasionally followed their skin track...

9 a.m. - Top of Easy Pass.  Sun crust on far (south) side of Easy Pass was firm and thick enough that it was very difficult to get any boot penetration.  (It wasn€™t getting any sun yet). I put on boot crampons; Carla booted carefully without.  (We didn€™t expect it to be so firm!)

9:45 a.m. - Feeling better about snow crust and our ability to ski it, we finally transitioned to skis.  (This was after a good amount of postholing and wallowing.) 

10 a.m. - Down near Fisher Creek, start descending along Fisher Creek. Snow was very crusty / icy / bumpy in the trees; difficult to maintain control.  Carla had the good sense to take off skis when it got particularly bad around 4100€™.

12 p.m. - Found a log/snow bridge across Fisher Creek at 3920€™. 

1 p.m. - Hear impressive-sounding snow dropping over cliffs above Fisher Creek tributary (let€™s call it 'Douglas Creek€™.  Slightly terrifying.

3 p.m. - Lunch break in upper bowl of Douglas Creek

4:50 p.m. - at Camp at 7100€™

Sunday:
6:15 a.m. - Leave camp.  Ski crampons were perfect for this section.

~8 a.m. - on Banded Glacier.  Boot penetration was ~knee deep going up the ridge / wind swale at the junction of the 2 glaciers. We booted up to false summit #1 thinking that it would be a good place to stash skis.  Along the way, we had issues with snow balling up all around our boots (cuff to toe) due to boot-top penetration + wet snow + powdery snow.  I€™d never seen anything quite like it (I neglected to take a picture).  It turned out to be challenging to head north from this summit (firm / steep snow and loose rocks), so we ended up taking a convoluted route down, across, down, up, and around (to the left of) what we thought was the false summit to what we thought was the true summit.

10:30 - On top of €œfalse summit #2€ (north of true summit).  No rope used here.  Once on top of false summit #2 we realized that the thing south of us was probably higher than us.  The GPS appeared to agree that the true summit was south of us.  We retraced our steps and tried out a couple of different options before eventually heading up some talus on the looker€™s left of the summit (viewed from the col S of the true summit)

12:20 - On top of true summit.  Joy!  We rapped off the summit (used red ¾€ webbing), and probably should have used a rope on the way up (one move of significance).  We then mostly retraced our steps back to false summit #1.  The best skiing we had we just below false summit #1 (powder-like).  Carla opted to ski down the steep wind-swale bit getting back to the Douglas, which kicked off a decent-sized slough.  Since I€™m a chicken about skiing slopes greater than 50 degrees, I booted down.

1:30 - Back at camp.  The skiing along the Douglas was generally slow and slushy.  We kicked off a couple of small sloughs in the steeper sections.

3:30 - Crossed Fisher Creek on skis / skins at same spot at 3920€™ and start heading up Fisher Creek valley.  The section through the trees along Fisher Creek I found demoralizing because it was hard to tell if we were making any progress at all and were constantly navigating around streams and trees, etc.

5:30 - at 5000€™ near Fisher Creek (where we finally had a view of Easy Pass).  Time to start climbing.  Snow was (as expected) very slushy on the way up.  Sidestepping down (which we occasionally had to do to get around rocks/ trees) was particularly slow.  If the trail had been melted out, we probably would have moved twice as fast.  We set a skin track that ascended to 6100€™ near where the summer trail switchbacks are, then traversed across to Easy Pass. The traversing was harder than expected (at least hard as the first 1100€™ of switchbacking); getting across gullies and through trees, and dealing with rotten snow around rocks was exhausting.

8:15 p.m. - at top of Easy Pass.  We hastily transitioned to take advantage of the last bits of sunlight and get down before the sun crust on the north side of the pass got any worse (it was probably about ½€ at this time...

8:30 - back in the woods.  We did well for the first ½ of the trip through the woods (crossing one of the more significant creeks at exactly the same spot we did on the way in), but then started traversing too high.  We ended up in some tight trees and booting the last ½ mile or so, which of course involved plenty of postholing.

10 p.m. - back at car. 

1:45 a.m. - back in Seattle

Learnings:
- BD Glidelite skins can curl up so badly that they come off your skis when very very wet, but a couple of ski straps on each ski worked well to put 'em back on.
- Easy Pass should be renamed €œNot So Easy Pass€
- The 2001 Saturn SL makes a surprisingly good trailhead-sleeping car.  The seats fold flat, and the back deck even makes a nice shelf! 

Gear used:
30 m 8 mil rope
Webbing
Ski crampons
Boot crampons
40 deg (summer) sleeping bag
Winter sleeping pad (downmat 7)
MegaLite shelter
Glad you guys got in and out.  Even if you had some subpar skiing, you had awesome views!
I was wondering how the summit block and the Not Easy Pass ascent would go.
What I was really wondering was how to get into your car for the chips on the drivers seat!  What a tease ; -)

Fantastic views! Thanks for sharing the great photos and detailed trip report. 

author=fwb link=topic=28483.msg119778#msg119778 date=1367980372]
What I was really wondering was how to get into your car for the chips on the drivers seat!  What a tease ; -)


;D
Thanks for your note at the car fwb.
Great trip with a great partner/skin track setter/trail breaker.


My pics:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32121172@N00/sets/72157633422973379/





Great trip and photos.  ;)

That's pretty damn awesome!


Sweet trip. Nice job.

Way to get after it, looks beautiful out there!  Your names came up multiple times on Sunday while imbibing beverages in lot 4 at Alpy :)

B)

beautiful trip. have to get out there someday.

Well you made that look easy.  Easy pass is obviously aptly named.

Love the pics! A master behind the lens!

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may-4-5-2013-mt-logan-slushfest-de-mayo
Susan Ashlock
2013-05-07 16:37:48