May 18, 2007, - Iron Pk

With the potentially dicey weather, Debbie & I decided to dash to the east side for some sunshine. The N. Fork Teanaway road is clear to the trailhead with only one snow patch left and we did our best to smash the ruts down to dirt and scrape the center ridge down further €“ it should be a non-issue in another day.  We had to hike to about 5,000€™ to get to skinnable snow.  On the return, however, we were able to milk the snow patches probably down another 300€™ or so.  The weather held well, with only a couple of €œlenticularish€ lumps cast off from Rainier (the crests of the waves, the last of which parked between the sun and Iron peak, shading our lunch...)  The northeast bowl skied well, being plenty softened but consolidated enough to only be mid-calf at worst if booting upslope.  We spent the afternoon alternately staring at Stuart & the Enchantments and yo-yo-ing the bowl.  No pollen. No stream crossings.  Short hike.  Sunny day.  500€™ slope of hero snow.  ;D

Too bad the new snow makes this report on conditions somewhat irrelevant.

-Dave R