May 15, 2015, Rogers Pass, Swiss South Face

Started skinning at 3am this morning to make an attempt on Swiss norte. Skinnable snow started at around 1650m on the Hermit Meadows trail. A weak freeze overnight made for easy skinning until we started going up the lizards tail where the crust became more firm. Small wet slide debris were on most of the south facing lines but Rogers South face had a fairly wide section that was clean with two nice looking tracks from a few days ago coming down it. Easy booting up frozen corn with crampons had us to the top of Swiss Peak by 9:45. Unfortunately the prize we had come for, the north face, remained shrouded in recirculating cloud. We waited until 10:30 to no avail and decided the mist was not going to clear so we turned our attention to the sunny south side. Proto corn was the first course untill the first rocky choke followed soon after by ripened corn all the way down to the top of hermit meadows. Once at treeline the crust broke down and we made mushy turns to around 1500m where the snow petered out above the trail. Still plenty of good skiing in the pass for those who dont mind small amounts of walking.