May 8, 2018, Gib Ledges to Chute
5/8/18
1890
3
Hesitated to report last week due to the route's steepness and objective hazard. But as it is one of the finest bang-for-buck mountaineering-steep skiing itineraries on the Mother Dome, I just can't help it. Camped at Muir. Up the ledges to Colombia Crest, dropping in around 1030am. With KDH, JH and SR. She was wide, white, smooth and fast when we got her, not sure what it looks like now. The ice cliff is obviously intimidating to ski near/beneath, but with how clean the canvas was, it seemed to have been reasonably stable at the time. Traversing left at the bottom to a point where we crossed the bergschrund felt the most exposed, with the towering mass of the Gib Rock structure above threatening to release stone melons, refrigerators or Airstreams. The cleaver between the Nisqually icefall and ice cliff had recently shit itself massively, and looked to have a lot more in store. I prefer skiing nonstop, and the house-of-cards surroundings sure are a good way to get motivated to ski through the leg burn. Muir was sticky below 10k', reports of "perfect corn" are fake news.
Looks exciting... thanks for sharing. Need some consolidation!
A big chunk came down and gouged a wide track through the middle of the chute some time on Saturday. I think it's done for the season.
I tucked into it Monday morning but we were late (both for that hot day and likely for the season).
Gib was spitting more frequently than desired (fortunately not Airstreams or fridges but plenty of fruit varieties) and it was already 11am so the spitting was certain to get more volatile. We skied in from skier's left mid ledges for some initially smooth turns before crossing the slide path for a fantastic pitch skier's right. As Kam mentioned above, a large chunk of the upper ice cliff broke off and took out the majority of the run.
To our surprise, the upper Muir snowfield skied like the corn I never thought would ripen this hurried harvest season. Then we hit 8500' and started the quad workout. Please note there were no news sponsors supporting this post.
Gib was spitting more frequently than desired (fortunately not Airstreams or fridges but plenty of fruit varieties) and it was already 11am so the spitting was certain to get more volatile. We skied in from skier's left mid ledges for some initially smooth turns before crossing the slide path for a fantastic pitch skier's right. As Kam mentioned above, a large chunk of the upper ice cliff broke off and took out the majority of the run.
To our surprise, the upper Muir snowfield skied like the corn I never thought would ripen this hurried harvest season. Then we hit 8500' and started the quad workout. Please note there were no news sponsors supporting this post.
Reply to this TR
Please login first: