 Turns-All-Year backcountry skiing in the Pacific NorthwestBackcountry Skiing and Snowboarding Trip Reports |
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| This old version of Trip Reports is no longer being updated. It is being kept as an archive of ~340 backcountry skiing trip reports posted from April 2001 through August 2002. The new version Trip Reports is where new trip reports are currently being posted; it also has copies of the ~340 older trip reports and is searchable. |
| July-August 2001 Trip Reports |
August 26, 2001 Muir Glide Cracks, Mt. Rainier NP: "Busted!!!! We thought we'd be able to sneak up to check out the Muir glide cracks everyone's been talking about without getting caught up on the mountain without skis. We did take them along in the car but when we saw the shape of the snowfield from the parking lot we thought "naw, looks nasty" besides, nobody else will be crazy enough to hoist boards clear up there just to do stone grinds on their edges. Little did we know! No more than did we pop up above the last Pebble roll and there's Brent Hostetler putting his skins back on for a 2nd run!! Brent decided to go all the way up with us to check out the cracks, and then skied on down. It was great to have him along on the way up. The cracks were not as dramatic as they could have been, however, as some recent snow had filled them in. If you haven't been up there in a while you can see some shots of them here. Pray for snow." ron jarvis August 26, 2001 Camp Muir, Mt. Rainier NP: "My last ski outing was Adams on July 1. Wednesday was a big software release which has occupied me the last several months. Yesterday I put the battery back in my Mountain Rescue pager. I had to put in an August trip (you know, that consecutive month business). There are not a lot of options in late August for a day trip. There's Muir, of course. I hiked to Pebble Creek, skinned to the base of Anvil Rock, and ran the E edge of the Snowfield on a little new to Pebble Creek. Fairly grim (bumpy and dirty) but it was too early to quit. As I was putting on the skins I met Ron J and Jeanette M, curiously on foot, but they had already put in their August ski outings. Like me they were curious about the reports of crevasses on the upper Snowfield. So we took a look. There are three or four substantial glide cracks or creavasses, call them what you will, on the fall line beneath Muir (most are above Anvil Rock). The best skiing of the day was from Muir to the base of Anvil Rock (relatively new, clean, and consolidating). 6200 vf, 10 miles, which isn't bad for an old programmer who hasn't been out much, right?" Brent H August 26, 2001 Snow Dome, Mt. Hood: "Wanted to make an August ski, so made the long drive and met friend Cyril at cloud cap trailhead to check out Snow Dome for the first time. Hiked in at night and camped at ~7700 ft. Our plan was to make a couple of laps below the large crevasses at about the 9000 ft level. Awoke to very pleasant weather and we hoped the sunny day would soften the (dirty/icy/bumpy) snow. Climbed on skins with ski crampons (on randonee gear) to about 8800 feet below some crevasses, and waited until about 12:30 to start down. The views were of course excellent and except for a couple of ant-sized hikers on the Cooper Spur we had the whole north side of Hood to ourselves. The skiing was not excellent however, as the slope did not soften a great deal. We decided to wait a few hours and at 3 we went for another run. The snow had softened only a little bit, so we could not harvest the corn we had dreamed of, but the weather and the setting still combined to make an enjoyable day of skiing. I imagine that this would be an excellent spot with more snow. Any suggestions on a place to get September and October turns? (The thin snowpack makes me wonder if it will happen for me this year, let's hope for a couple of early-sason dumps!)" Corey Bloom (alpentalcorey@yahoo.com) August 12, 2001 Lower Paradise Glacier, MRNP: "It promised to be another warm, sunny summer day on Sunday; perfect for late summer turns at Mt. Rainier. Charles and I left Seattle early to meet year-round skiers Ron, Jeanette, and Paul at Paradise. It was a pleasure for me to finally meet Ron in person after reading all his great trip reports the last few years. The crowds were already arriving at Paradise as we pulled in, but where we were going we would see only one hiker all day (and was he ever bummed to see all of us!). We hiked over Mazama Ridge and towards the Paradise Glacier. The flower display was spectacular with Lupine and Indian Paint Brush at their peak. Also yellow and red Monkey Flower near any water. Paradise is definitely the right name for this place! The snow cover is of course very low now and we walked almost until we reached the site of the old Paradise Ice Caves (now gone). We skied a short south facing slope of about 240' several times and then headed for the "stash" slope. I had skied this slope once before in the fall after some new snow and it sure looked different this day. The most striking difference was several large cracks at the top of the slope. They varied in width up to about 5', and for those of us brave enough to get close and look down them they appeared to be bottomless. After a little fretting and exploring we found a way around them. I will be thinking about those cracks this fall! The slope below was great; minimally sun cupped clean snow at about 30 degrees pitch for 750'. Charles and I did this slope three times, the others once or twice. Everybody skied great except once when Charles and I tried to occupy the same space (my fault, minor injuries). The hike out was beautiful, as was the cold beer Ron had waiting for us at the car. Some of Ron's photos can be found at Turns-All-Year, and others at Wild Hearts Skiing." Andy Palunas August 11-12, 2001 Flett glaciers: "Headed up to the north side of Rainier this past weekend to ski the Flett glaciers, watch the meteor shower, and goof off. On the approach in Sat. afternoon we ran into countless day hikers, each one trying to come up with something witty to say to us, from 'you're being awfully optimistic aren't you?' to 'you should have snowboards man!' We camped at the toe of the Flett glaciers, next to Cat Eye Lake, buried the assortment of Rainier, Guiness, and Fosters cans in the snow and went up for some pre-dinner runs, The longest run we got was probably 1500 vert, but the snow was for the most part nice and soft with the runnels and suncups being relatively minor. That night we caught the meteor shower until the moon rose and made things too bright...so much so that I considered a moon light ski, but sacked out instead. The next morning was so warm that the snow was still corn, so before the morning coffee and breakfast I grabbed my skis and got in some early morning turns. After breakfast we took off for the glacier between Observation and Echo Rock at about 8000ft. We had excellent corn all day and found a few 500-700 vert. foot shots that were around 35-40 degrees and were in great shape. Then finished off the day with a couple nice long cruisers back down to camp at about 6500 ft. It also looks like the north facing slope off Ptarmigan Ridge just above Observation Rock had some really clean steep 500 v.f. shots down onto the Russell glacier, which was pretty heavily crevassed. There are spots on the glacier that have melted out to bare ice, so in a couple more weeks it might be wise to bring an axe and crampons to hike up the glaciers, but as of now we managed just fine hiking up in running shoes and ski boots. If you are looking for late season turns this is the place to go." Pete Alderson (peter_alderson@hotmail.com) August 11, 2001 Muir Snowfield, MRNP: "Don picked me up at about 6:45 and we arrived at Paradise just before 9 AM. The parking lot was almost full. We departed for Camp Muir at about 9:30. There were brilliant fields of wildflowers around Paradise (purple lupine, red Indian paintbrush, pink heather). We put our skis on just above pebble creek. Below us the (usually flat and snowy) surface of the lower Nisqually glacier was largely covered with black debris and completely cut up by innumerable huge crevasses. A bright, red and yellow warning sign described crevasse hazard ahead on the Muir snowfield! We were startled by the number of large bare rock piles we saw covering a significant area of the Muir snowfield above us. Don pointed out a huge pile of black dirt or glacial debris that had melted out in the middle of the lower Muir snowfield. On the upper Muir snowfield we crossed five crevasses. Each crevasse was marked with two red flagged wands. At least two of the crevasses were wide enough to present a major hazard to skiers. The larger ones were at least twenty feet deep (I could not see their bottoms). Don observed the deep blue color of glacial ice in one of them. I could hear water running far below me as I crossed the largest crevasse. We both agreed that unwanded crevasses could be very difficult for a skier to spot from above and we considered the possibility of walking part way down until we got below the crevasses. We arrived at Camp Muir at about 1:30 PM. Don observed one group of randonee skiers hiking down with their skis on their backs, presumably to avoid crevasse hazard. We decided to ski down the wanded climbers trail until we got below the crevasses (in order to watch for the double red wands marking them). We saw only one other tele skier departing as we began our descent; we saw no other skiers on our way down. Even though it had been sunny all day with a snow level at 14,000 feet, the snow surface was crusty, irregular, and bumpy, but not significantly suncupped (very unusual for August). Don took the lead and did an excellent job of spotting the crevasses far in advance, so we could stop and cross them safely. As we got lower down, below the crevasses, we found some soft clean corn snow toward the center and west side of the snowfield. On top I thought the skiing was only fair. Lower down it was better and I had some fun turns. We took our skis off at pebble creek. At glacier vista, we looked back at the massively crevassed, black, debris encrusted surface of the Nisqually glacier. we arrived back at the Paradise parking lot at about 4 PM. It took us about two hours of skiing and hiking to get down. For an August ski trip, the skiing was not too bad and overall it was a very interesting tour." Ken August 5, 2001 Paradise, MRNP: "Us old timers (and a couple of younger ones too) set out for selected south side Rainier slopes to have our way with them, in order to bag our "official ski" for August. As evidenced by the pics, we found a sweet slope with almost no cups or runnels with about 2 inches of harvestable corn over a perennial, country rock base. The goods are still out there in the PNW, but the carries are getting longer. We may have to settle for "ski terrain recon" hikes 'til the September ski. For Sept. maybe we'll do an overnighter on one of the full moon weekends for a bit of moonlight skiing and some extra runs to help make up for the longer carry. Pray for snow." ron jarvis August 3, 2001 Flett Glacier, MRNP: "This is the epic story of my very first trip into the backcountry. This season a friend and I discovered the wonderful world of snowriding addiction. Immediately, we realized that we would not be able to wait during the off season for the lifts to start again and began to prepare for the backcountry. After finding this site and reading the 7-29 trip report I decided on Flett. Mark and I loaded up my bus with gear and food for three days and set off for Mowich Lake early Friday morning after Mark got off work. We planned to do sort of a half day, hike back, sleep, and give it the full treatment on saturday.(So foolish!) Skipping breakfast, and on very little sleep, we set off down the spray park trail in our snowboard boots. I've never hiked three miles in my life let alone in snowboard boots and with a full pack and board on my back. (Definitely 3 in and 9 out.) Coming into Spray Park I had developed a blister on each foot and we were both very tired. The Mt. was completely fogged in and we weren't even sure which direction it was. There was a trail leading to where the Mt. was supposed to be but there was a sign saying not to walk on it. We continued on and finally decided to leave the trail and head towards the Mt. We went about a hundred yards and all of a sudden the fog just parted and Rainier seemed to jump at us like a dog when you get to close to the fence. Excited we spead toward the glacier, probably killing what little energy we had left. We decided to a few turns on a 50 yard patch to warm up and then had lunch. After a nice long break we started to climb below and to the right of what I think was Observation Rock - the first of three linked slopes if that tells you where we were. The snow was pretty solid and tough to climb in soft boots. I would have really liked crampons, especialy on the second slope. About 2/3 up the second slope there was a small crevasse. It was fairly long but only 6" wide at it's widest. I'd never seen one before so it was kind of a trip. After finally reaching the top of the second slope we decided that we were done which was fine because the 3rd slope had two larger cracks and a large field of blue ice. We also could hear water running. We put on our boards and rode down. I don't think we hit the right slope because there wasn't any great corn but it wasn't a bad ride until the end. That was about it for us. Not sure of the time and completely spent, we began the long hike back knowing we would not be back the next day. We arrived at about 8pm exhausted, starving and suffering severe impact headaches from all the hiking. The next morning we met and had some good conversations with some telemarkers and a climber who passed on some knowledge to us rookies. Now for the past two days I've been in bed sick, probably from overexcertion, trying to figure out if the trip was worth it. Here's my conclusion: As I came over the top of the second slope and kicked some quick turns down a 45 degree slope in August I was definitly diggin' it for about 45 seconds. However, for it to be worth it I will need three things: 1. A good pair of hiking boots. 2. Crampons and ice axe. 3. To be in much better shape. So, there you have it, my first backcountry trip start to finish. If anyone has any words of wisdom or advice for a couple of rookies feel free to e-mail me other wise have a great time out there." Lance P. (gypsyrec@msn.com) July 29, 2001 Spray Park/Flett Glacier, MRNP: "The overnight trip was washed out, so 9 of us gathered under the clouds at Mowich Lake on Sunday to try to salvage some kind of a ski trip. Foggy and cool on the trail up to Spray Park, but at about 6000ft we started getting views upward, and found the continuous snow starting at 6400ft, below Observation Rock. The fog drifted around all day, but we usually could wait a few minutes and do our runs in good visibility. There had been a little new snow, with a trace showing at 7500ft. The best skiing was on the steeper, north facing slopes around Observation, with smooth corn which began firm but softened nicely as the day slowly warmed. After lunch we broke up into smaller groups according to slope preference. Skiing in the lower reaches of all runs was a chore because of the long, deep runnels. We got a look at the Russell, which was showing both numerous crevasse fields and large areas melted down to glacier ice, and didn't look inviting for skiing. On the way back, tourists were startled by the thundering herd of plastic-footed maniacs. (Charles) Yeah. With matters concerning weather, sometimes you're the pigeon and sometimes you're the statue. Charles summed up the conditions for this classic north side tour pretty good. 6 of our 9 hadn't skied the area before so were enlightened to a great ski tour, albeit a long slog in and a much longer, grueling one out (the "official" word is that it is 3 miles in and 9 miles out). Reasonably decent coverage (for a low snow year) yielded a gaggle of turns in a plethora of descents on BC runs named "Around There", "Stubby", "Crossover", "Cruiser", and "Oh Shit". 12 hours later we were back at the car with sore feet and cold beer in our hands. That's about all I've got to say on the matter. (Ron) A few photos from this trip can be found here." Charles Eldridge and Ron Jarvis July 24-25, 2001 Spray Park/Flett Glacier, MRNP: "What a difference a month makes! When I came up in June, the continuous snow started before Mowich Lake, but now it starts at about 6500ft, above Spray Park. Going in over Knapsack Pass, I was surprised to find no snow at all on the east slope of the pass - I have always been able to ski that. Once in Spray Park, I took the Wonderland Trail to its high point, then traversed east and found a nice site for my bivy sack at the bottom of continuous snow below Echo Rock. I did a number of different runs below and between Echo and Observation. The lowest snow was fairly runneled, especially east aspects, but between 7000 and 8000ft there was good corn, consistent and fast, on most north slopes. On the first day, sunny above a sea of valley clouds, the surface snow was soft, so runs with small suncups were still great. Everything froze solidly overnight under the clear skies, and the next day the snow softened slowly despite the brilliant sun. I headed up toward Observation in the morning to make a rendevous with friends who might be coming in for the day, and then, as the chosen time had passed, began a run when up over the ridge came David. He had never been to the area before, so we did several different runs, each one getting better as the surface snow softened, with the best snow in the late afternoon. I didn't get packed up and leave my camp until 7:00, and got back to my car via the regular trail about 9:30. It ain't over...ever!" Charles Eldridge (tay@turns-all-year.com) July 22, 2001 Paradise Glacier, MRNP: "Overcast skies prevailed as we left Seattle but the "sucker holes" became more prevalent as we approached Rainier. We were hoping to avoid a replay of the trip the week before in which we played around in the clouds all day. Found mostly sunny skies as we climbed above the broken cloud cover as we homed in on the object of our affections, several skiable slopes to have our way with - which we did; until totally sated and out of time. Good corn was to be had on a firm base, as the pics will confirm. Again, managed to ski back out to the Skyline Trail, but that's probably not going to happen again this year. This time it was not only a great day with great company, but just about all the turns we could handle, as well." RonÊJarvis July 15, 2001 Paradise Glacier, MRNP: "Overcast skies prevailed as we entered the Park at the Nisqually entrance. Entered the clouds on the way up to Paradise at about 3,000 msl. Arrived at Paradise to fog and visibility of about 100 feet. Hoping to climb above the tops of the clouds, our equally divided (both by gender and binding persuasion) party of 6 loaded up and headed for the Cowlitz Rocks area with hopes of legendary turns. Following the Paradise Ice Caves trail, we encountered what we were reasonably sure to be continuous snow (still only had about 100 ft vis) where we put our skis down and started skinning. Climbed, on instruments, to the upper end of the lower Paradise Gl between the base of Cowlitz Rocks and the Upper Paradise Gl. Still in the soup, the general enthusiasm for climbing the surrounding slopes were soddened by the low vis, misting rain and light winds, with temps in the low 40s. A consensus poll revealed a unanimous yen toward retreat mode. Rigged for silent running (downhill mode) we set off down through the fog of the lower Paradise like a family of baby ducklings. The legendary turns gleaned from the first roll alongside the falls made the entire trip worth the effort. Managed to ski back out to within 521 ft (according to Mr. Garmin) of the Stevens/Van Trump monument. All in all a good day on Mt. Rainier. Some exercise, great company and a few turns. What else could we ask for on a July winter day in Seattle? Predictably, there wasn't much to see in the pictures in the way of skiing, so I omitted a pic link. Maybe photo op conditions will be better next time." RonÊJarvis July 14, 2001 Mt Baker Summit/Easton-Squak: "Well it was my birthday so what better way to celebrate than to go skiing. The weather jockeys said drizzle but I figured any skiing is better than all hiking. The drive on Baker Lake road showed Shuksan in all her glory--so much for accuweather. My third trip up this year via Scott Paul trail as not much left elsewhere. Ninety minutes of pleasant shaded hiking to 4900' (aside: maybe not as good as Davis Peak but...). I booted for awhile longer but one could have put skis on at 5400. Pretty runnelled at first thus the carry. Began skinning at 6000'. Squak definitely showing its cracks and some zig zags necessary. A mountaineering school practicing in the bowl to the side of peak at 6900' (let's just call it Puy de Scott Paul--hey it was Bastille Day). The biggest obstacle of the day was at 8950' if my Suunto was correct (was 20' short at summit). Here one finds a triple crevasse crossing. Doable without rope for now but requires some chutzpah. I deskied but skiied over it coming down. Will require rope when more melt occurs. Base of caldera requires one to stay far right on the boot tracks for the key bridge. Two more openings on the RW require attention. I skinned the whole wall which at times was more difficult but I felt safer than on foot. Disappointed to see no skin track or downhill ski tracks on the Wall. Another attention getting opening forming at the very top of the wall just after going through a rock band (appr 10400). Summit area quite mild with south wind. Nice view of Shuksan but clouds covering everything else below. Unconsolidated mush with funky crust layer on RW downhill run. Below that aforementioned 8950 crux a wonderful corn carpet presented itself all the way to 5200' with one short deski near the bottom. Not bad in mid July for a 5600' run. Try that on Rainier without risking your life. My original plan was just a day ski to the caldera but even though I drove up from Seattle that am, had enough energy to summit 215pm. With apologies to Sally Portman, I think I will call it the Birthday Tour--West Slope edition. It ain't over till it's over." Nick Davies July 15, 2001 Colchuck Glacier: "Colchuck Glacier on July 15 had good corn, not too soft or hard. No bugs, not too sunny and hot on the Colchuck Lake trail." Anon July 8, 2001 Nisqually Chutes, MRNP: "By the time they stopped showing up we had 7 peops for skiing at Paradise and, get this, five of them were ttips posters. Not too shabby a showing, says I. With that many independent thinkers a 100% consensus was unlikely. Eric, Lori and Pete headed for Muir and the remaining four headed for the chutes. Dana, Robie and the "Lungs with Legs", Charles, climbed up above the main chute (entry at about 8200) to about 9,000 to get a few more turns and kill time while waiting for the geezer (guess who). I cut directly for the chute to save time so that we could get down it before it got sun baked enough to slide. I dug a pit while waiting for the kids playing above and found a hard refrozen ice layer under 4 to 6" of softer older snow. Didn't look like any danger today (unless a boulder rolled down on you; Eric and Lori did watch a large one go by them later in the day). The upper end of the chute made us pay attention with a 42 degree slope, a rock obstacle course and a left dogleg to contend with. Nothing a hotdog would slow down for, but enough to slow a geezer to a stop here and there. It likely will not be skiable for either in another week. Once past the dogleg it was corn cruzin' for nearly 2,000 VF. By the time we got back up to the base of Pan, Eric and Lori called and said they were headed down from Muir to do the chute and wanted a report, so we waited to watch them ski it. From the base of Pan we skied down (albeit carefully) to the cross trail at the top of Deadhorse Creek valley, about 200 yards from the parking lot (that won't be doable next week either). Some pics are available for those of you looking for a snow fix at Chute Pics" Ron Jarvis July 8, 2001 Camp Muir, MRNP: "7 of us started up through the bare meadows on this warm, sunny day; 3 were headed to Camp Muir, and 4 to the Nisqually Chutes (see Ron's report above). I started with the contingent going to the chutes, but ended up at Camp Muir. Looking down the chute (only one had continuous snow) from the entrance, the top few hundred feet had too much rock exposure for me; the previous time I skied with Ron's group, I broke a rib, and I didn't want a repeat (or worse) performance. I was on my most technologically-advanced skis, Tuas from around 1990, which were "short and wide" when I bought them but have amazingly become "long and narrow" in the years since, and they didn't seem like the best choice for that run. Bailing from the chute run, I climbed up towards Muir, and met the last of the 3 Muir-direct contingent descending at 9500ft, having the time of his life on great snow. It was the first time he had ever been to 10,000ft, anywhere, and his first backcountry trip with so many continuous turns. I finished climbing to Muir and descended. The first 2000ft were excellent - fast, consistent, and quite smooth in the region to the west (skier's right) of the climber's boot tracks. From about 8000ft to Pebble Creek the increasingly wet surface layer became a bit "grabby", but was still well consolidated. From Pebble Creek to the Pan face trail there were 2 carries between snowpatches, and I just hiked the section. Below Pan Pt, however, it was possible to ski continuous snow most of the way back to the car, to along side of Alta Vista, wherein the opportunity arose to repeatedly answer the eternal question, 'Did you make it all the way?' " Charles Eldridge (tay@turns-all-year.com) July 7, 2001 Mt Adams: "This reporter, accompanied by the Lady in Red, began the usual route from a packed campground at 6am. Perfect weather. No skinning all the way to the summit due to hard conditions all the way to the summit. Steady snow from the top of the Crescent. Tons of folks, (most with very small packs or fanny packs) even a five year old, on route. Ski from summit very bumpy--saw the bottoms of a few tele hero's skis with their heads firmly planted. We found SW Chute in primo conditions except bumpy at 75% point and then lots of rocks (very warm in chute). Got an additional 800' with some scramble nonsense then the big scramble and cross mtn trail back to regular climber's trail. My opinion is it is too late for this due to the amount booting from end of snow but each person chooses." Nick Davies July 1, 2001 Yellow Aster Butte/Tomyhoi Peak: "Quite a few flowers, lots of hiking, a little good skiing. The butte is pretty bare, so we continued on towards Tomyhoi. The basin of blue ponds west of Yellow Aster is mostly snow covered, but getting bumpy. Snowmobile tracks were clearly visible here, well within the Mt. Baker Wilderness. The route beyond is a sub-optimal combination of snow and non-snow. Some all-terrain skiing is required here on the way down. The big notch below Tomyhoi is snow-free. As we labored up the other side, two scramblers passed us coming down. They were puzzled by our skis, apparently unfamiliar with the concept of hiking 3 hours (OK, it was more than 3) for a little skiing. We bypassed the formidable-looking summit and headed for the glacier on the north side. The left side of the glacier is a bit on the active side, with massive mobile home size cracks. The right side is more friendly, and we made a nice but short run down about 700 feet, below which most of the glacier basically falls off some cliffs" PaulC Back to top |