July 4-5, 2005, Russell and Flett Gl. MRNP
7/4/05
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
2272
1
We camped on Ptarmigan Ridge at 7800 ft on the 4th. Above 6200 ft we saw nobody for the next 24 hours (until we descended) except one person far up on the Russell descending around 4:30 pm on the 4th. It was nice to have a somewhat wilderness experience on the 4th of July about 40 miles from where I live, looking down on the metropolis. The weather and views were awesome. We camped with a great view of the Puget Sound region and I still cannot believe just how many fireworks I saw going off for so long over such a huge region.
I've skied the Russell in July for the last three years and the snow coverage below about 7800-ft is the worst I've seen, and above that point, the best. The Russell is also super smooth right now. The photo below was taken from the top of Observation Rock around sunset (note ski tracks - Wolfs?)
We hiked up Ptarmigan Ridge until about 8500 ft and then skinned following Wolfs (?) tracks. The snow was pretty mushy even at 10:30 am, it was tough to keep my ski's from sinking in. On the descent around noon, some portions were probably 12-inch deep mush - seemingly bottomless! The Russell was pretty challenging due to the unconsolidated mush. The Flett had much better consolidation and was much better skiing in my opinion.
I've skied the Russell in July for the last three years and the snow coverage below about 7800-ft is the worst I've seen, and above that point, the best. The Russell is also super smooth right now. The photo below was taken from the top of Observation Rock around sunset (note ski tracks - Wolfs?)
We hiked up Ptarmigan Ridge until about 8500 ft and then skinned following Wolfs (?) tracks. The snow was pretty mushy even at 10:30 am, it was tough to keep my ski's from sinking in. On the descent around noon, some portions were probably 12-inch deep mush - seemingly bottomless! The Russell was pretty challenging due to the unconsolidated mush. The Flett had much better consolidation and was much better skiing in my opinion.
That's an outstanding picture. I'd love to have a copy of that in full resolution. The lone 4:30 skier might have been me or perhaps another solo skier who might have been lurking somewhere I couldn't see, I thought I saw a new extra ascent track as I came down. Looks like myself, the pair, and the maybe mystery skier pretty much all followed same line. An intuitively sensible idea when skiing a glacier even a pretty tame one like the Russell. On ascent, the preceding pair and I were all following closeby an up/down bootpack of indeterminate age that had sunk nice and deep, a fine crevasse poodling provided for us, and even then a peppering of soft pockets along the skintrack that would suck down poles a foot or so caused occasional slight whoas. Your late day lighting also highlights a few forming sags which were obliviously invisible to me at the time... On the 4th the snow was by no means bottomless mush, I guess that one warm day (and warm night?) took its toll. I've had that mush factor come up to some degree on each of my previous 3 volcano skis this year, the corning has been pretty capricious.
Fireworks from the Flett. Fun!
Fireworks from the Flett. Fun!
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