July 17, 2005, Inter Glacier
7/17/05
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
2165
0
My wife and I headed up on the Inter Glacier today. What a beautiful day, incredible flowers along the trail.
The ranger at White River Campground told us that they were recommending that folks rope up on the Inter Glacier, and this time I gotta say that he was right. There were still plenty of unroped folks up there though. We did skin over about a half dozen opening crevasses, and a couple spots where someone's leg had probed the openness below.
I had never been up there before, and was amazed at the "highway" of boot holes going all the way to the summit of the mountain.
We turned around at about the 8200ft level, our "gaping-hole crossing limit" having been reached. It looked like good turns higher, just one last multi-crevasse snow bridge that got to our comfort level.
We got some nice summer corn turns down. While the snow isn't really clean looking, it wasn't bottomless mush, but rather nice to turn on. The breeze was just enough to keep the glacier from being a total frying pan.
The sun cups were still pre-adolescent compared to Kam's report from San Gorgonio, and they didn't affect the ability to turn.
Just a super-sunny July day.
11 months and counting, I hope those sun cups aren't too bad on Muir next month.
Oh yeah, I did notice that most of the skiiers were sticking to around the boot track, but there were a couple of spots where the boot track didn't always look like the smartest route for someone on skis, ie it was opening up more than to the sides at a couple points. Is this just lemming behavior sticking to the boot track, or are their serious reasons there to avoid the good looking lines?
The ranger at White River Campground told us that they were recommending that folks rope up on the Inter Glacier, and this time I gotta say that he was right. There were still plenty of unroped folks up there though. We did skin over about a half dozen opening crevasses, and a couple spots where someone's leg had probed the openness below.
I had never been up there before, and was amazed at the "highway" of boot holes going all the way to the summit of the mountain.
We turned around at about the 8200ft level, our "gaping-hole crossing limit" having been reached. It looked like good turns higher, just one last multi-crevasse snow bridge that got to our comfort level.
We got some nice summer corn turns down. While the snow isn't really clean looking, it wasn't bottomless mush, but rather nice to turn on. The breeze was just enough to keep the glacier from being a total frying pan.
The sun cups were still pre-adolescent compared to Kam's report from San Gorgonio, and they didn't affect the ability to turn.
Just a super-sunny July day.
11 months and counting, I hope those sun cups aren't too bad on Muir next month.
Oh yeah, I did notice that most of the skiiers were sticking to around the boot track, but there were a couple of spots where the boot track didn't always look like the smartest route for someone on skis, ie it was opening up more than to the sides at a couple points. Is this just lemming behavior sticking to the boot track, or are their serious reasons there to avoid the good looking lines?
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