July 11, 2007, Ruth Mt.
7/11/07
WA Cascades West Slopes North (Mt Baker)
5971
10
Jon Thompson and I found plenty of good snow on Ruth Wednesday.
We started hiking around 6:30 am, which was just about right. Nice and cool on the hike, but just (barely) soft enough to kick steps in the snow traversing across from the first hill past Hannigan Pass. I'd bring crampons and a Whip-it next time for this section (fall on hard morning snow would be very bad).
Skinned up Ruth's north side without incident. A good breeze kept us cool.
It was the first time for either of us to be there, so the views had us enthralled.
We'd been thinking of the Icy traverse, but it didn't look like much fun, and the snow on Ruth was just corning up perfectly, so we had to ski (thinking we'd come back for another lap if we were psyched). Jon had the bad luck to catch his thumb under an edge on a low tele turn. Wearing gloves on a cool day he likely wouldn't even have noticed it (until finding a slice in his glove later) but it cut deep into his flesh, luckily not through any tendons etc. We wrapped it up and continued the ski finding great firm corn, but no second lap due to the injury.
Jon cuts up the top slope just before he cuts himself.
We didn't realize how hot it was until we skied down out of the wind into the valley on the other side of Hannigan pass and kicked up a tongue of snow to the trail. Those open slopes back to the car were killers. By the time I got there I was drained and thinking I would have been crawling if we'd gone back up for another lap!
Skiing the lower ridge of Ruth
Dropping down to the east of the pass, a bit bumpy here, but still good turns
The thumb seemed OK as we drove home so Jon said he'd make a decision on going to the emergency room after he re-bandaged it at home. When he did he decided he'd better head over to the UW Medical Center where he got stitched up by a nice medical student (after the typical wait). He said that when he finally fell into bed this morning it had been almost 24 hours since he'd gotten up. Sweet looking little Ruth had had her way with him and he won't forget it for a while.
We started hiking around 6:30 am, which was just about right. Nice and cool on the hike, but just (barely) soft enough to kick steps in the snow traversing across from the first hill past Hannigan Pass. I'd bring crampons and a Whip-it next time for this section (fall on hard morning snow would be very bad).
Skinned up Ruth's north side without incident. A good breeze kept us cool.
It was the first time for either of us to be there, so the views had us enthralled.
We'd been thinking of the Icy traverse, but it didn't look like much fun, and the snow on Ruth was just corning up perfectly, so we had to ski (thinking we'd come back for another lap if we were psyched). Jon had the bad luck to catch his thumb under an edge on a low tele turn. Wearing gloves on a cool day he likely wouldn't even have noticed it (until finding a slice in his glove later) but it cut deep into his flesh, luckily not through any tendons etc. We wrapped it up and continued the ski finding great firm corn, but no second lap due to the injury.
Jon cuts up the top slope just before he cuts himself.
We didn't realize how hot it was until we skied down out of the wind into the valley on the other side of Hannigan pass and kicked up a tongue of snow to the trail. Those open slopes back to the car were killers. By the time I got there I was drained and thinking I would have been crawling if we'd gone back up for another lap!
Skiing the lower ridge of Ruth
Dropping down to the east of the pass, a bit bumpy here, but still good turns
The thumb seemed OK as we drove home so Jon said he'd make a decision on going to the emergency room after he re-bandaged it at home. When he did he decided he'd better head over to the UW Medical Center where he got stitched up by a nice medical student (after the typical wait). He said that when he finally fell into bed this morning it had been almost 24 hours since he'd gotten up. Sweet looking little Ruth had had her way with him and he won't forget it for a while.
author=jd link=topic=7583.msg30260#msg30260 date=1184291638]
Jon had the bad luck to catch his thumb under an edge on a low tele turn.
Thanks for the generous description...more like a bonehead slip-up. Courting Ruth has left me a bit more haggard than I would have expected.
Here is a photo of the traverse from Hannigan Pass taken from Hannigan Peak from this past Saturday. I agree- a fall would be very bad juju!
Look hard & you'll see a line of climbers headed across the traverse..
Look hard & you'll see a line of climbers headed across the traverse..
Scole,
Cool photo. Almost looks like you can link snow on the west side of that hump, what do you think? Do you have another shot showing more of the basin? Jon and I thought it would have been great to drop the whole north face, and come back up to the pass from over there, but thought we saw too much green hell / steep talus to traverse.
It would be nice to take the fall line all the way down the north face from here.
Sad photo of a dying glacier on Icy
Cool photo. Almost looks like you can link snow on the west side of that hump, what do you think? Do you have another shot showing more of the basin? Jon and I thought it would have been great to drop the whole north face, and come back up to the pass from over there, but thought we saw too much green hell / steep talus to traverse.
It would be nice to take the fall line all the way down the north face from here.
Sad photo of a dying glacier on Icy
looks like you guys had a fabulous run. i can only imagine how hot the valley was! the coverage looked really good in your pictures. was there any indication of crevasses opening up? Ive been thinking of doing ruth for a while but a little fuzzy on the route. hannegan pass and around the north side of the ridge? thanks!
Nice work! It's still looking in good shape. I was back in there a month ago and we skied all the way down through the gullies and booted back over the hannegan flats from the valley. All the snow we booted up looks gone now, sadly, but the gullies are still looking nice. Fewer glide cracks, even, from when we were there.
Glad you didn't leave your thumb behind!
Glad you didn't leave your thumb behind!
The route goes straight up the ridge from the pass, then straight up a steep "climber's" (more like mt. goat) path on the next big hill, which gets you to the steep snow traverse around the east (climber's left) of the hump/cliff on the ridge. This is where we should have had pons & axe/whip-it. Continue traversing around to the north ridge of Ruth which you follow to the summit.
Very few crevases visible on Ruth at the moment as you can see from the picture.
Very few crevases visible on Ruth at the moment as you can see from the picture.
JD-
I haven't down anything up in this area except the hike to Hannigan Peak so I can't comment.
Here's a link to all my photos from my hike. I don't think I took a photo which shows what you're interested in, though.
I haven't down anything up in this area except the hike to Hannigan Peak so I can't comment.
Here's a link to all my photos from my hike. I don't think I took a photo which shows what you're interested in, though.
author=jd link=topic=7583.msg30267#msg30267 date=1184338157">
Sad photo of a dying glacier on Icy
Just the other day I was browsing the UW digital collection and comparing to photos I had taken. Most of that icefall was covered in my shot and it almost looked like that glacier might have grown at some point in the last century. From your shot it's easier to see what's happening.
Icy from Ruth (undated)
Icy from Ruth in June 2007 (sure looked different a month ago)
Looks like you guys had a good trip up there. That's a fun ski did you go and check out icy too? Jeff told me you guys were going but I think I was riding my bike in whistler that weekend.
author=Tom link=topic=7583.msg30310#msg30310 date=1184545898]
Just the other day I was browsing the UW digital collection and comparing to photos I had taken. Most of that icefall was covered in my shot and it almost looked like that glacier that might have grown at some point in the last century. From your shot it's easier to see what's happening.
The 1971 book "Glacier Ice" by Austin Post and Edward LaChapelle says the Spillway Glacier on Icy Peak exhibits behavior not uncommon to very steep glaciers. "They tend to build up accumulation, reach a critical level, discharge a sudden flow of ice, then return to a quiescent state while accumulation resumes again."
The Spillway Glacier has been doing this for a long time. That's how it got its name.
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