June 24-25, Russell-Flett Yo-Yo
6/24/15
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
2818
1
Hiked up day of 24th to a camp just above Spray Park. Forecasted small weather front moved through socking in the upper mountain and sending a fleeting drizzle our way. Cleared after a couple of hours letting us get a lap on a the headwall above Flett glacial remnants. Steeper slopes great, less-steep slopes quite runneled/suncupped. Used my Megamid tent at the risk of being murdered by mosquitos but they only seemed to be bothersome around evening and morning.
Day two climbed to 10,200' at the high camp on Ptarmagin Ridge. Russell Glacier generally quite nasty and suncupped. Brown and black snow near exposed rock, especially nearing 10k'. For our ski back we took a yo-yo, traverse, climb, repeat track, skiing the steeper, smooth edges of the terrain, then traversing and climbing across the junk, yielding nice turns on each of the five pitches we skied back towards camp. Looks like we were following Norseman's group's tracks most of the way. Pretty junky up there but salvageable with route choice. Wishing for a big whopping NW'er to blow through with 6k' freezing levels and reset our volcanoes before July. Yeah, right.
15 second video if yer bored: https://instagram.com/p/4ZzvTHPcss/
Day two climbed to 10,200' at the high camp on Ptarmagin Ridge. Russell Glacier generally quite nasty and suncupped. Brown and black snow near exposed rock, especially nearing 10k'. For our ski back we took a yo-yo, traverse, climb, repeat track, skiing the steeper, smooth edges of the terrain, then traversing and climbing across the junk, yielding nice turns on each of the five pitches we skied back towards camp. Looks like we were following Norseman's group's tracks most of the way. Pretty junky up there but salvageable with route choice. Wishing for a big whopping NW'er to blow through with 6k' freezing levels and reset our volcanoes before July. Yeah, right.
15 second video if yer bored: https://instagram.com/p/4ZzvTHPcss/
Some photos from the area today giving a sense of what the Flett looks like, sun cups on the way to the Russell Glacier and the poor shape of the upper Russell Glacier.
Earliest I've ever skied the Russell Glacier and that yielded way less snow in Spray Park than on any of the prior trips and far more suncups than on any prior trip. A great day for wildflowers, however!
Earliest I've ever skied the Russell Glacier and that yielded way less snow in Spray Park than on any of the prior trips and far more suncups than on any prior trip. A great day for wildflowers, however!
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