March 07, 2015, Glacier Peak

Left car shortly after 4PM and made good time to 4500ft at the obvious skin transition point. Getting back into the trees there were some dry spots that I just skinned over, but it may be better to head up and switch closer to 4700ft. When I got above the tree line I lost the tracks heading up and I couldn't figure out where the summer trail was. Instead I put crampons on and booted straight up to climber's left of the rock band, then headed to the col west of White Peak. That probably worked out better than skinning up frozen snow along the summer trail. From the col I dropped down and skied to the flat area below White Peak. There is easy access to water as pointed out in a prior trip report. From there I headed up to 6150ft and practice building a snow cave. Not very successfully. After two hours of digging I gave up, the snow was just to hard. I pulled my sleeping bag out and took a nap for 4-55h. I got up again at around 6:30AM, ate some food and headed out. Took me 5:30h to summit from there. Skinning was mostly fast, thanks to the hard surface. I was able to skin all the way to the summit; snow on the face was a mix of patches of packed powder, crust with tear drop ice, and ice hard snow that wouldn't take ski crampons. After getting a hang of the route selection game I quickly made it up to the summit. I hung out there for 30min, light to no wind. Skiing down was actually good, the 30min had soften up the top and packed powder lines below skied well. After the Cool Glacier pass, I had spring corn all the way back to the flat area below White Peak.  I went back to the place I bivied to grab a few items I left and then made my way back to White Pass. I got up there just around 4:30 - 5PM with the sun still hitting the slopes. Skiing down from White Pass was great as well. Skied all the way to 4500ft, cooked some food, and made my way out. Overall 30.5h round-trip.