May 11, Lil' T, penitentes, corn

Kam, Joe and I left the car at the White River Road gate around 645am on Wednesday and biked to Summerland Trail. We hiked the trail in shoes and began skinning near-continuous snow after the trail passes the waterfalls.

Took the standard east route to the summit of Little Tahoma. Top 200' of east-facing snowfields (above ~10,500') are shin- to knee-high penitentes. Above there, snow ramps on the S facing ramps are mostly melted out, with remaining snow also made up of penitente formations. Below the penitente line the skiing was very good and we skied to 8,400' on the Whitman.

Made the short climb back to Whitman Crest and descended the Frying Pan Glacier on more high-quality spring snow. The surface got sticky at around 6,500', so we skinned up and made a final climb to gain a medial ridge allowing us one final, superlative run back to the creek. We attempted to ski as much trail as possible below the waterfalls, but a wiser party would probably just pack the skis from about 4,500' down.

Some large cracks opening up on Whitman and Frying Pan glaciers. DC route on the big R looks to be in late-June condition. Didn't note any wet-loose slide activity thanks to fairly cool temps, but more settling may occur with the next temperature spike.