June 2, 2018, Ohanepecosh and Frying Pan Glaciers

Headed up to Whitman Crest yesterday. Sparse snow patches start only about 10 minutes up the Frying Pan Creek trail and then become more frequent about 45 minutes up the trail. Still not worth putting on skis until about an hour into things but even then there will be 4-5 carries until the bridge over the creek. No blow downs on the trail.

Once over the bridge, the coverage into Summerland is solid although the last bridge over the creek had it's last day yesterday and it's now necessary to take off the skis and rock hop across. From Summerland up to the Frying Pan, there's continuous snow with the exception of one bare spot on the very top of Meany Crest. The glacier itself is well filled in up to Whitman Crest. The usual cracks on the steeper aspects leading up to the crest are opening up but easily avoided by going left of them.

Once on top, took a 2,000 foot run on great corn snow down the southern side of the glacier mixing long stretches of turns with the occasional traverse until dropping onto the Ohanepecosh Glacier. Could have easily done several hundred feet more on good snow but thought better of it given the need to climb all the way back up!

Once back up on the top of Whitman Crest, I skied down the Frying Pan back to Summerland. Smooth, fast corn snow made for great skiing. There's one crack starting to sag and open a bit where the glacier steepens on its way down to Summerland. Even the steeper pitch down into Summerland skied awesome with great corn on a firm surface and no sloughing or wet slides. No glide cracks as of yet in that section. The suncups and grabby snow finally occur once back on the flatter sections in Summerland.

The corn snow was perfectly ripe at 11:45-noon and remained that way until the final run down at 1:30, although high clouds had kept the glacier in the shade for a good part of the morning, which likely prevented things from getting too cooked.