September 7, 2014, Russel Glacier MRNP

The Russel: the glacier so nice we skied it twice!

After having a great time on the Russel on August 1st, we decided it would be our best option for some September turns. The hike through spray park is outstanding. Very few bugs this time around, the trail is in great shape, and the views alone are worth the ski carry.

We turned off the Wonderland trail at 6360' onto a well worn climbers trail that took us up to a snow patch at 7100' where we ditched shoes and began skinning. The Flett had a nice long run available, but it appeared fairly suncupped, and so we continued on to the Russel. We passed between Echo and Observation rocks, completed one last ski carry, and found surprisingly smooth snow on the Russel proper. The glacier had opened up considerably since August 1, but there was a wide, obvious line that was plenty safe for skinning and skiing.

We topped out at about 9000' on Ptarmigan Ridge and enjoyed our lunch with some fine wine (ya know, Bandit!).

The first few hundred feet of turns we a bit bumpy, but to our delight the surface smoothed out and made for fast turns. As we skied towards a cleaver that juts into the Russel, we noticed fresh, wind-deposited snow from last weekend's precip. Our turns traced a ribbon of the 'fresh' snow all the way down to 7300', where without much deliberation we decided to skin up and take a second lap! The turns felt like carving through a thin layer of mashed potatoes on a firm base, so tasty and so fun!

September turns definitely exceeded expectations this year. 3000' of turns, much of which was smooth and fast.

Spray Park:


The Russel:






The smooth stuff: