TR Replies

Obviously, my credibility has little staying power with this group. I suppose it was good while it lasted.

Altogether, this was a great tour for location, duration and company; only the summit views and the snow quality were lacking. The Easton route still features only a few, relatively minor, mandatory crevasse hops, but some real yawners are opening fast. We skied unroped both up and down, but this might have been problematic had visibility deteriorated.

Charles, by the w...

7/2/04 5:14am

Joedabaker

JDB, sorry I missed meeting you - whatever you yelled to us from the bottom of your "parking lot" run didn't come through (Matt and I were trying to figure out if that was Russ down there, having decided to make one more quick run).

I think I yelled-come in the waters warm.

I ran into Russ and he told me that you were Burrough's hopping. I thought of going out since I was a step behind you all day, but the Chutes lo...

7/1/04 9:31pm

Charles

Justin, good to finally meet you, and thanks for those boot steps up the Roman Wall. This was my first time to the top of Baker, and although the view from the top was not spectacular due to the lenticular, and the snow on the Roman Wall didn't provide very good skiing, it was great to get there nonetheless. Thanks to Mark for organizing our group and providing necessary leadership. For the record, our group also included sb up to the crater (a really cool spot), but with his extensive experienc...

7/1/04 8:14pm

Zap

Phil, nice layout of your TR and photos on your website. Zap

7/1/04 6:49pm

Joedabaker

I guess every dog has it's day! ;D Thanks Ron for the great shot which allowed me to achieve such fame 8) and uh.... I am a diehard skier-well there will be no fortune. But, the babes are worth it- Oh yeah....I mentioned that I am a skier didn't I?
We missed you Donnelly. You would have been throwing all sorts of tricks off of the cornices!
Thanks for the complements on the pie-You are all welcome and it may become tradition. I enjoyed the camaraderie as much of you enjoyed the pie!
I...

7/1/04 5:47pm

ron j

Thanks, Donnelly.
And you're absolutely right, there still plenty of turns to be had out there.
Say, did you see that your old buddy, Joedabaker made THE COVER OF (the skiers equivalent of) THE ROLLING STONE!?!!
Check it out:
http://www.telemarktips.com/index.htm

7/1/04 11:02am

Phil_H

Matt's jaw dropped a few times too....

For those of you who wanted to see some photos from this trip, I've put some up on my web site:

7/1/04 10:20am

DonnellyM

Nice photos of that cornice. Great air and well done! ;D Mighty tasty looking for taking several leaps of that air. I'm drooling over that cornice ??? Oh, there's always next year. But this year is far from finished for me. ;D There's plenty of airs to be had outthere!

7/1/04 9:48am

DonnellyM

I heard that was a banner year for snowfall. Too bad I was stuck in North Carolina that year. >:( After missing two years of skiing due to living in NC, I'm willing to ski anything no matter how short or even silly it might seem to others.btw There is skiing in NC, I was busy with college to even bother. Summit West is far better than anything overthere. ;D

7/1/04 9:12am

Lowell_Skoog

Who'd ever thought you could ski the Summit at Snoqualmie in July!

In 2002, I did a traverse from the Summit to the Cle Elum River starting on June 1 and started skiing right at the paved road. I bet you could have skied Summit West in July that year. (The snowpack was well above 100% of normal at Snoqualmie.)

The only patch I remember at the Summit last weekend was a pile left over from the terrain park. Whatever floats your boat! ...

7/1/04 8:22am

Paul Belitz

Isn't that just slightly contrived? Man, and I thought I was an addict.... ;) ;)

7/1/04 8:20am

powscraper

Oh dang sorry. I was a little delerious after the climb, with the head cold and all. ??? Thanks, that cold brew was a blessing.

7/1/04 8:10am

DonnellyM

All skiing is real, I meant some serious vertical. :D

6/30/04 11:20pm

russ

Hey, Justin. Nice to meet you and Colin on the mountain. Although we didn't get the snow conditions Mark promised it was a fun day nonetheless. btw, that was my beer you were drinking, not Mark's. ;)

6/30/04 7:45pm

ron j

You mean These?

6/30/04 7:22pm

JMor

June 25-26, 2004, Mt Shasta, Hotlum-Wintun Ridge

;D Nice air shots of Jerry and Chirs on the Dege "Hollywood" action shoot. 8)

6/30/04 4:48am

wolfs

Wow, you are one motivated dude - shasta four times in a year. Yow. I can't even contemplate doing the drive to Shasta that often in a year. My prediction for the future of H-W based on my June 11 run was that yes, coverage wise it would be skiable for at least another month, but that large quantities wouldn't exactly be the kind of snow sought out for skiing. Seems like you bore this out. This based on what the snow surface was looking like June 11 between 8-11K and particularly how it was sunc...

6/30/04 4:07am

ron j

Well now there's a gaggle of photos at
http://groups.msn.com/WildHeartsSkiing/sourdoughchutefest6262704.msnw

Unfortunately, I didn't have the time (or talent) to caption them like Kam did, so there's no equivalent chuckles, but there IS lots of pic of the gang having fun!!

and tibaher, there's also a couple good ones of you in there, to make up for the one you didn't care for of JW's ;) Thanks for joining our little community.

Thanks, all for participating, fo...

6/30/04 12:55am

Lowell_Skoog

June 21, 2004, South Sister, Southside

I think we will go with our original plan and not bring skis.

Probably a good choice. But bring ski poles! My wife and I walked the Ptarmigan in early July some years ago and we both carried only short-ish ice axes. They were no virtually help at all while plodding through soft snow. Trekking poles would have been just the ticket.

6/29/04 10:42pm

Jeff Huber

How motivated are you to ski? Right now I wouldn't go out of my way to drive to South Sister just for turns but if I was going to be there for other reasons I'd definitely bring skis. My guess is it'll be a bit boney and there'd be a few short portages but you'll still have good turns. Though large suncups typically form on the plateaus of Moraine Lakes I doubt they will be a significant issue on the actual peak.

Be aware that the ramp everyone skis that leads from the Clark glacier to th...

6/29/04 9:37pm

aaron_tree

June 21, 2004, South Sister, Southside

Gaper,

What's your guess on how much longer South Sister will be in? I'm considering heading there for the 4th but am wondering if it will be sun cupped.

Aaron

6/29/04 5:35pm

ron j

June 27, 2004, Mt Rainier, Emmons Gl

Yeah, very nice job summiting. Congrads to you and Monika.

6/29/04 4:57pm

DonnellyM

June 27, 2004, Mt Rainier, Emmons Gl

Nice job on summiting. I summited a week ago and yes conditions were boiler plate the first 1000 feet or so. I'm still glad I skied from summit rather than walked down. I feel more comfortable on skis than walking. ;) I almost think it's harder to down climb then climb up, especially on ice.
Donnelly

6/29/04 9:44am

Kirsten

Thanks for the quick reply and all the useful information! :) I think we will go with our original plan and not bring skis.

6/29/04 8:12am

J.P.

Charles -

Sounds like I must have just missed meeting you in the parking lot Friday. You must have been playing out toward Dege Peak as I did not see another pair of skis toward the Burroughs until I was back in the parking lot and ran into JDB shortly after 3 p.m.?

As for secret stashes, the only ones I know about have an incredibly poor work v.s. reward ratio, so the fact we tend to never see another set of tracks all winter probably suggests that we are gluttons for punish...

6/29/04 7:19am

J-Lady

Sorry I missed you guys, I seemed to be chasing your tails all day. Got back to the car after the carpet was rolled up. >:( Will look forward to tagging up next year though.

6/29/04 7:11am

Don_Larkin

Charles good meeting you and your ski comrades. Sunrises was prime for the poaching. Saturday was great see J.P.'s report. ;) Those stashes, I do not know what you are talking about?

6/29/04 6:03am

ski_photomatt

The lakes are melting out and there is running water everywhere. We were able to sleep on bare ground each night. The snow was rotten primarily above 6500 ft where it hadn't consolidated yet, but that has most likely changed. I'm not sure whether to recommend skis for a trip next week or not; there should be decent coverage higher up, but I'd imagine you will have to carry them quite a bit at the low points.

6/29/04 5:42am

Kirsten

Great trip report! Sounds like an amazing trip. I can't wait to see it for myself. My boyfriend and I are planning on doing the Ptarmigan starting this Saturday and finishing the next Sunday (giving ourselves plenty of time to relax, climb and enjoy the scenery). Our original plan was to travel on foot, although after reading your TR, we may opt for skis. From what you wrote, it sounds as though the snow was getting pretty rotten but there was still lots of it. &nb...

6/29/04 4:43am

ski_photomatt

Both Phil and I shot film, so I'm not sure when photos will be coming.

I especially liked your acknowledgement of the conservationist legacy.

I wanted to go a step further and acknowledge Tom Miller's book, The North Cascades, but it was getting long and decided to cut it. Perhaps now is a good time..

Last fall Lowell and I hiked the Ptarmigan with Phil Fortier and Brian Miller to recreate some of the photos in Tom Miller'...

6/29/04 3:23am

Ned_Flanders

What a great way to spend a sunday!!!

Joe, thanks for the pie, it surely hit the spot.

~Joshua (aka Ned)

6/29/04 1:27am

Sam Avaiusini

very cool! Nice re-cap, Matt! I'll have to remember the term "jungle filled holes" next time I'm buried in schwack!

6/28/04 11:46pm

Lowell_Skoog

June 18-19, 2004, Fuhrer Finger, MRNP

Nice story, Matt. Congratulations on completing the trip in such iffy weather and snow conditions. I especially liked your acknowledgement of the conservationist legacy.

6/28/04 11:35pm

russ

Also good to met you, and later in the parking lot we talked with Joel R. I think you're right about the melt rate in the gap, amazing how fast it's going.

6/28/04 11:25pm

amy

Thanks Ron and Jeanette - I had another great time skiing with you all!

6/28/04 10:48pm

Jason_H.

I've always wanted to do that. I'm jealous. Thanks for the stoke. I've only been to dome and to gunsight notch, but haven't had to opportunity to see what is in between. Show us some pics when you get a chance.

6/28/04 9:40pm

cascadesfreak

Thanks for organizing a great trip Ron & Jeanette!! Guess I missed the "official circus" on Sunday ;D but I had a great time with you all on Dege Saturday morning...wish I could've stuck around for the BBQ, but maybe next year! ;)

6/28/04 9:26pm

sag

I also wanted to say thank you, thank you to joedabaker. that was the best mountain pie I've ever had. you are welcome to bring those any time. ;D ;D ;D

6/28/04 9:01pm

Charles

June 27, 2004, Easton Glacier

J.P. - we ran into Joel in the parking lot as we were leaving (and again in Naches Tavern), but sorry we didn't get a chance to meet you. Joel dropped enough hints about multiple secret stashes, though, that I will make it a point to hook up with you all and see what that is all about (I can keep a secret, despite appearances). Also, thanks for trying to find us in the Dalles over the Memorial weekend. As you noticed, we weren't in #24, having moved to a riverside site on check-in and getting to...

6/28/04 8:46pm

Charles

I could do no wrong, no matter what I tried: telemarks, parallels (as it happens, I do not know how to turn in parallel, but these worked flawlessly nonetheless), monomarks, fakeamarks, reversamarks.

What, no harfamarks?

Thanks for the great report, hope to ski with you soon. ;)

6/28/04 8:33pm

russ

June 20, 2004, Mt Adams - SW Chutes

Here's an idea.

How about taking the round the mountain trail, booting the SW chutes, and avoiding 19 out of 20 circus animals altogether ;).

I'm only half kidding about the route. I have an overhead (can't spell aireal) photo of Adams that I swear has a boot pack all the way up the SW chutes.

I went up a couple of years ago to do it this way. Camped in the big sand basin (maybe around 7K) a ridge below the chutes. That night a...

6/28/04 8:19pm

mfaoro

Another great day with the Turns-all-Year crew! Thanks Ron and MADDOG!

Here are my photos for the day:

http://community.webshots.com/album/157717281WlpJTg

6/28/04 8:01pm

kam