Home > Trip Reports > July 17, 2005, Flett/Russell Glaciers, MRNP

July 17, 2005, Flett/Russell Glaciers, MRNP

7/17/05
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
6278
14
Posted by gregL on 7/17/05 11:59am


Really wanting to see the Flett and Russell Glaciers in good weather, I hooked up with Michael and his friend Fabien Mandrillon for a day trip on Sunday - the high pressure window looked convincing for the next several days. Lots of cars in the Mowich Lake lot when we arrived at around 7:30 AM, but most people were still in their tents and we didn't see anyone else on the trail until well past Spray Park.

The hike to skinnable snow is getting longer and longer, and the carries more troublesome, but the snow was less mushy than we had anticipated and made for good skinning except on the steeper aspects with a thin layer of soft corn on them which slipped out under foot fairly easily; not troublesome enough to dig down in my pack and get out the ski crampons.

A handful of crevasses are starting to open up on the Russell (maybe 10 or so) but are fairly narrow and easy to end run. We skinned and booted to the highest point over the Russell (my altimeter said 10,013 ft) - it's the little point between the south end of the Russell and the Liberty Cap Glacier - and skied from slightly below that.

We were able to total over 3,700 vf of skiing (OK, some booting over rocks included) by crossing over to the lower Observation Rock Headwall and going as far as the sand-laden snow would allow (free base-grind, anyone?). Unfortunately this took us well away from the trail, and the return cross-country heather-whacking took a fair amount of time. Good corn conditions for the most part, with some runnels and several rockfall-infested sections to traverse across.




Awesome day on the Russell for me to. I saw a variety of skiers, but I don't think our paths crossed. I took the Charles method and spent the night. I started up the flett around 8am. When I crossed onto the Russell, someone started yelling at me. I'm not quite sure what. Perhaps "SCOTT" or maybe "STOP". Couldn't really tell. But I guess it seemed important enough for them to scurry up lower ptarmigan ridge to yell it again. I wonder what they were yelling about.

I had to be back early so I turned around at 10:30. I only made it to the first bump in your picture. I think this is the one that Charles pictured in his post. Anyway the conditions were quite good. 1-2 inches of soft corn on top of a firm base. Thanks for posting the great pictures.

We were able to total over 3,700 vf of skiing (OK, some booting over rocks included) ...


Not bad for mid-July!, especially this year  8) .    Glad you were able to get out to enjoy the blue-bird day!  Sounds like the Flett has melted-out quite a bit more in the past couple of weeks.

Very nice Greg, et al. The photo with the red dot and tracks, looks absolutely delicious.

PS: Kudos on your new site, http://www.randosaigai.com/

I like the gear section with all the photos of the lightweight AT gear.


I'm jealous; I spent my weekend inside. Looks like great snow and excellent weather.

Nice site, Greg, aesthetically pleasing for sure.I would change  one thing, though: when you compress an image in the html (eg, <img src=pic.jpg width=100 height=150> and the actual image is 200 by 300), the browser has to interpolate, and the pic quality suffers. If you resize the photos so you don't need the html to shrink them, the page will load faster, the images will look better, and if/when you want to hotlink to a forum, the pics will be the same size as you see them on your site. I really like irfanview (www.irfanview.com) for this kind of stuff, you can do batch resizes and renames, fine rotations, and all sorts of handy stuff.  :)

I was down in Grand Park late on Sunday (not skiing, sadly, must return to the Grand for some 3-pinning, reports from Charles and others from early- and late-winter are sure enticing). I was training the binocs at the Russell looking for ski tracks, but somehow I couldn't see any. It may be that from down there you can't actually see the triangular part and can only see the part that folds over and drops down onto the Carbon. Or mebbe I am just blind.
What's guesses by those that were there about either Russell or Flett having any promise by August? I've seen the Flett in August be largely blue ice (with firn/last seasons snow in sad little ribbons, which I skied), but am not as familiar with what the Russell will do later season.

Thanks for the tips, Paul - the site's only been up for about a week, and I'm still working on ways to expand it, so any suggestions from TAY readers are welcome!

Greg and Michael: nice report and it sounds like you guys found some great skiing.  nice photos and website, too!

I started up the flett around 8am. When I crossed onto the Russell, someone started yelling at me. I'm not quite sure what. Perhaps "SCOTT" or maybe "STOP". Couldn't really tell. But I guess it seemed important enough for them to scurry up lower ptarmigan ridge to yell it again. I wonder what they were yelling about.


Haha... was this Sunday morning?  It was likely a woman yelling "SKY".  :)


looks like it was an awesome day, you guys!  very nice, very nice.  great pics too greg. :)

Your tracks looked really sweet from lower Ptarmigan Ridge yesterday, way to get some sweet July corn.

sky, did you guys send?



Haha... was this Sunday morning?  It was likely a woman yelling "SKY".  :)



Wow, the thought that I could be mistaken for Sky. There must have been some optical effect to make me look in shape or something.

Yeah I forgot to mention the band of 5 skiers and 1 climber at the mowich lake trailhead. Not to mention that the one named Sky passed me on the gravel road just below the parking lot. Pretty exciting for me to meet the famous daredevils of TAY!!!!

What a fun day - thanks for coming up with the idea to go there Greg! I had never been on the Flett before  - great place and almost nobody around...Getting to the snow was somewhat long, but a great trail and all the nice flowers on the way make it go by pretty quickly...

Here are some pictures:

Greg and Fabien on the hike up
Greg skinning up
Fabien..."why did I leave my skis in France??"
Greg getting closer to our final destination...
View on the hanging glaciers...
Greg at the top
Greg doing some advertisement for Atomic
First turns...
Greg making turns in the corn
..more corn ;-)
Nice turn!
...makes me want to go back
Greg's head was steaming because of the heat...here is his solution...

What's guesses by those that were there about either Russell or Flett having any promise by August? I've seen the Flett in August be largely blue ice (with firn/last seasons snow in sad little ribbons, which I skied), but am not as familiar with what the Russell will do later season.


The snow layer on top of the ice is very thin in many places and melted out in others, I expect that with another couple of weeks of warm weather there will be more of these icy spots that don't turn to corn...

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2005-07-17 18:59:39