Home > Trip Reports > 10 nov 2013, colchuck glacier

10 nov 2013, colchuck glacier

11/16/13
WA Cascades East Slopes Central
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Posted by bs. on 11/12/13 2:38pm
looking for a convenient spot to gather some folks from disparate geographical locations for a tour, colchuck seemed nice and central.

or maybe i was just hoping there'd be enough snow on 8 mile road to try out my new snow tires.


my first time driving this rig in snow.  yeah! a summer spent wrenching seemed a little more worthwhile after that drive.  we set up camp at the TH for a few hours sleep.


the snow was pretty thin on the approach hike, but i was still optimistic.


nice views as the sun came up.


the optimism started to fade when we saw the snow conditions on our objective.


but a closer look revealed that we _might_ be able to ride the lower section through the talus.


it was all rock scrambling until we reached the glacier and could finally start skinning.


as we climbed up towards the col, the clouds raced downward towards us.  soon our paths collided, and we found ourselves immersed in the proverbial milk bottle. 


we joked about waiting for the clouds to pass and then started down from the col, carving thick, wind packed snow.


it was relieving to drop below the cloud that i was afraid might have swallowed up our entire descent.  it's lots easier to dodge ice and rocks when you can see.


the real moment of truth came when we passed the moraine... would we be downclimbing a thousand feet of snowy talus???  nope! a little finger of snow filled the bottom of a shallow gully on skiers' right.  and best of all, it was soft POW!


things got pretty boney down low but with a bit of ptex sacrificed to the snow gods we rode to within a few hundred feet of the lake.  stoked we hit the continuous snow jackpot!

Awesome!  Skiing to the lake makes the whole trip better.  Thanks for the report. 

Nice van.


yea… cool TR… and an even cooler van.

Yeah, more pics of that rig doing its thing!

I miss VW's...Wife finally said enough... 

You have a build thread on the van somewhere?

Nice trip.



it's cracking me up that my syncro is the highlight of the TR, but then again, i kind of agree.  lust for a 4wd vanagon was one of the big factors that ended my 2 year stint as an unemployed snowboard bum and got me back to full time work.  i picked the van up late last winter and all but gave up rock climbing this past summer to get her in shape for winter.  it was a lot of "work" but seemed worth it when i folded out the newly upholstered bed in the snowy trailhead parking lot. 

fortunately, my gf is a fan of temperamental old volkswagens as well (good thing as we had 3 in various states of disassembly this spring).  i'm more worried that she'll get sick of my ongoing addiction to the white powder...

i've been documenting my work on the van here


[img width=800]http://www.vancouversun.com/health/cms/binary/9166790.jpg?size=620x400s" />

White powder?  Girl Friend?  It could be worse...

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10-nov-2013-colchuck-glacier
bs.
2013-11-12 22:38:11