September 2, 2006, Sholes Glacier (et cetera)
9/2/06
2507
1
How was the skiing?
Uh, well, it sure was a nice day out there¦.
But how was the skiing?
You shoulda seen Mt. Baker in the late-day sun, looming huge, framed by The Portals. Magnificent!
Yeh yeh yeh, but how was the skiing?
By exercising uncharacteristic determination and focus, I was able to awaken, eat breakfast, pack, drive to the Artist Point parking lot and hit the trail¦.all by the very reasonable hour of 2:15 pm. This left 5.5 hours of brilliant sunshine, plus an hour of twilight and fifteen minutes of utter darkness for my ski tour, which barely sufficed. I had hardly left the parking lot when I started hearing of another skier ahead on the trail. Hes done skiing for the day and now hes swimming in that half-melted lake! Hes crazy! I did not credit these reports, of course, being familiar with the many delusional disorders to which the general populace is subject. Instead, I put my head down and charged onwards.
Perfectly skiable snowfields begin an hour or so from the car on Ptarmigan Ridge, with 3-600 foot descents on a variety of aspects. I sneered at these, hoping for better on the Sholes Glacier another hour and a half down the trail. Sad to say, the Sholes no longer appeals; the various sections cannot be linked without traversing ugly grey and blue ice, and the total skiable vertical available is minimal. I poked around a bit, determining that one favorite chute is spanned by a monstrous shrund while other possible descents suffer substantial defects (ice, rocks, crevasses, melted-out moraines, etc.), before bailing for home by way of a few of those 500 foot snowfields Id previously snubbed. These were moderately cupped, no dirtier than expected, and, if short, certainly well-located along one of the most spectacular and easily accessible trails in the North Cascades.
Ok, its September. Coverage is sparse, trails are dusty, and skiers are few and far between. Three inches of patchy snowfall earlier in the week appears to have filled in suncups, smoothing and cleaning in random areas above about 6100 feet; this makes all the more puzzling my choice of this particular area for todays tour, given that it consists entirely of terrain below approximately 6100 feet. However, at least it is clear that winter is approaching, as it reliably does.
On my return hike I stumbled across a very happy, only somewhat crazed, skier, fresh from his meltwater swim. This proved to be Rod O., who is often accompanied by Tim Place when conditions are more agreeable. Rod was spending the entire weekend bivied by the trail, repeatedly lapping every skiable line within miles. This did not seem near so crazed under the circumstances as hastening back to Bellingham to scan weather forecasts for hints of light, fluffy snows surely just around the corner.
Enjoy,
Mark
Uh, well, it sure was a nice day out there¦.
But how was the skiing?
You shoulda seen Mt. Baker in the late-day sun, looming huge, framed by The Portals. Magnificent!
Yeh yeh yeh, but how was the skiing?
By exercising uncharacteristic determination and focus, I was able to awaken, eat breakfast, pack, drive to the Artist Point parking lot and hit the trail¦.all by the very reasonable hour of 2:15 pm. This left 5.5 hours of brilliant sunshine, plus an hour of twilight and fifteen minutes of utter darkness for my ski tour, which barely sufficed. I had hardly left the parking lot when I started hearing of another skier ahead on the trail. Hes done skiing for the day and now hes swimming in that half-melted lake! Hes crazy! I did not credit these reports, of course, being familiar with the many delusional disorders to which the general populace is subject. Instead, I put my head down and charged onwards.
Perfectly skiable snowfields begin an hour or so from the car on Ptarmigan Ridge, with 3-600 foot descents on a variety of aspects. I sneered at these, hoping for better on the Sholes Glacier another hour and a half down the trail. Sad to say, the Sholes no longer appeals; the various sections cannot be linked without traversing ugly grey and blue ice, and the total skiable vertical available is minimal. I poked around a bit, determining that one favorite chute is spanned by a monstrous shrund while other possible descents suffer substantial defects (ice, rocks, crevasses, melted-out moraines, etc.), before bailing for home by way of a few of those 500 foot snowfields Id previously snubbed. These were moderately cupped, no dirtier than expected, and, if short, certainly well-located along one of the most spectacular and easily accessible trails in the North Cascades.
Ok, its September. Coverage is sparse, trails are dusty, and skiers are few and far between. Three inches of patchy snowfall earlier in the week appears to have filled in suncups, smoothing and cleaning in random areas above about 6100 feet; this makes all the more puzzling my choice of this particular area for todays tour, given that it consists entirely of terrain below approximately 6100 feet. However, at least it is clear that winter is approaching, as it reliably does.
On my return hike I stumbled across a very happy, only somewhat crazed, skier, fresh from his meltwater swim. This proved to be Rod O., who is often accompanied by Tim Place when conditions are more agreeable. Rod was spending the entire weekend bivied by the trail, repeatedly lapping every skiable line within miles. This did not seem near so crazed under the circumstances as hastening back to Bellingham to scan weather forecasts for hints of light, fluffy snows surely just around the corner.
Enjoy,
Mark
Would the next person headed for the Shoals Glacier area please bring Rod a sandwich! ::) ;D
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