June 14, 2015, Coleman Pinnacle Circumnavigation

We had a great day on the Ptarmigan Ridge in Baker, getting in my 20th month of turns all year.  The view of Baker and Coleman Pinnacle from Artist Point parking lot is surreal, they both look so big, yet so close like you could reach out and touch 'em.  We headed out about 8:30 on the trail, reaching the ridge around 10:30am, once over the ridge following the trail to below Coleman Pinnacle we had a motley mix of snow and rock, easy to cross eventually reaching the ridge just below the Pinnacle.  We summited about 11:45am and enjoyed the view, sun and lunch.  Down to the saddle we put on skis and snowboard and dropped down the north side for a interesting run.  You could ride 10 - 20 yards right or left of certain aspects and ride nice corn, a bit of crust or slop...really interesting study in summer snow.  Enjoying the first run we went back up and did it again, this time traversing back towards the Northeast on descent.  As we ran out of snow we reluctantly returned to our travel boots and traversed back to the main trail intersecting below the ridge.  Back to the cars by 4:30pm.  Two of us had been up in this area two weeks ago and I'd say about 40% of the snow we had seen around the area was gone, it's leaving fast.  No photos for now, will post later.