danhelmstadter

Trip: Mt. Shuksan - Danger on the Noth Face Date: 5/3/2009 Trip Report: It was about 930 on Sunday morning, I was at the Mountain Man coffe shop in Maple falls drowing a hangover with coffe and eggs. I was a little surpised by the clearing skys - last time I checked, it was supposed to be raining? what - another clear spring day? Not an oppurtunity to be wasted... The seed of a plan was begging to sprout, and I quickly checked various forecasts, surprised by the mostly to partly sunny updates. The North Face of Shuksan! what a great idea, It had just rained over night, so there could be powder up there! Yes, the North Face sounds like a fine idea... I left the White Salmon gate at a little past 11, yes - a little late of a start, but by no means too late for the North Face; I would have to be quick though. A quick walk of the dog and one of those nasty tasteing weird energy shots and I was off as quick as I could move. Snow for ascent was perfect and I ran into a party going up the White Salmon with heavy overnight packs. I was a little worried that my skins would glop, and I had forgot to bring my wax, this worry proved however to be frivoulous... Corn turned to powder at the col elevation, and I easily skinned through the ~foot of fresh snow up the lower North Face and onto the face. Clouds were thickening to the west and north, but I was confident that if worst came to worst, I could get back down, as I am familiar with the route. I continued skinning up slightly more consolidated snow to a point where boot packing became more efficiant. I dug several pits and did several shear and compression tests, both showing that there was a bit of a slab there, but it was apparently well bonded to the underlying ice crust... I also observed no shooting cracks or whumphs from my ascent - so I felt content with stability so far... I was more concerned with hidden crevasses - the other day there were three large sagging cracks across the upper face, today there was barely a hint of one... I made my way higher - probeing for cracks with my ski pole as I went. Clouds were contineuing to thicken, and most of the surrounding mountains were mostly enveloped in various cloud forms. I was almost there though, and I had a flashlight and a deep track to follow back. There was no major storm in the forecast, so I figured this incomeing weather was just a little brush from a passing syestem to the SE, and perhaps a little of convective action with the associated moist unstable air. As I neared the 50 degree upper section, I climbed on exposed old ice crusts when I could rather than subject myself to the possible unstable snow. This took a little bit of weaving, but was easy enough. Topping out was a good feeling, as that steep upper section is always a clencher and today was no exception... Unfortunatly the clouds did roll in and envelope the mountain in snow wind and very low visability. The sun was still high, so I decided to wait by the lee of a rock, and wait for an hour or so in hopes of a break in the weather. I waited, ate, grew a litte uneasy in this unexpected turn of weather, although I was still very confident in my ability to get down safely. The break in clouds I was waiting for came after about an hour of waiting, and glourious late afternoon filtered sun spilled across the North Face, Dark clouds heavily contrasted with the golden light illuminating the feilds of snow and cliff bands below me. Somewhere far far down beneath a wafting vail of black clouds Price Lake lay. My yellow shaded goggles enhanced this effect into a surreal alpine scene. There was no time for sightseeing however - it was time to rock and roll - but hopefully not so much rolling... The first few turns on the low angle snow before the sharp drop were very pleasant, I knew I had to cut the sharp roll, and take my time down this very steep extremely exposed section. I made the cut with an added hop for extra weight force -- CRAAACKSHEWWWKKKCHHHHHHHHHHHH The slab ripped out and rocketed off towrds the nearest cliff, the meatier upper part over took the lower part and the slab swept the upper slope with amazeing speed and force before it liquified on a rock outcropping and shot into the air with tremendous noise crashing down from a 40'flight off the first cliff, then it covered the next 1000 feet in a few seconds before it dissapeared off the huge cliffs below into the dark clouds... HOLY FUCKING SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was terrrified, and quickly switched to crampons and downclimbed the icy bed surface. The crown was about a foot at it's thickest, and spaned 15 feet or so, The flanks were thin, but spaned about 30 feet. Upon reaching the base of the slab, I carefully downclimbed my ascent track step for step. I wanted to take no chances with disturbing more snow by skiing. I clicked the skis back on upon reaching the top of lower face beacuse the snow was completely unconsolidated powder in this section. The turns were good, but I was still a little shook to enjoy them fully. The light was now fadeing, but I skiied mashpotatoes and some corn all the way down to the valley fairly quickly. Rain begain to fall as I packed my skis and climbed up out of the valley to the resort.

Trip: Mt. Shuksan - BYS couloir Date: 5/1/2009 Trip Report: I could not let a workless good weather day slip by, despite being a touch sore from my ski of the SW face the day before, and I have the approach the N side routes dialed. I skinned in bueatiful but softening corn up to the col overlooking price lake, then cramponed up hard snow to and through lower north face. I knew the west faceing BYS would be soft as it catches direct afternoon sun, but I wanted to scope the upper north face; and perhaps connect a ski of the BYS with the upper north face as Sky and Eric did last year. As I crested the ridge to the upper half of the north face, I discovered nasty breakable ice crust... not at all desireable ski conditions, and I did not want to gamble with time and climb the upper face - hopeing the late afternoon sun would soften the crust, as the sun is not too direct on North aspects this time of year, and there was a but of a breeze, and I had skiied the face 2 times before; but it is oh such a good ski line! I made my way to the entrance of the BYS which was not too far to the west. Lookin down on the upper couloir: I found ripper corn in the couloir for the most part: The traverse out was quick and easy: I did not ski the lower ramp section like Sky and Eric did last year because it was melted out to rock in several sections; instead - I traversed over to the lower northwest couloir, and skiied some great fall line. Very stoked to have skiied such a great line in good condtions. The classic shot:

Trip: Mt. Shuksan - South West Face ski Date: 4/30/2009 Trip Report: I left the White Salmon parking area a touch late and dropped into the valley and skinned up the White Salmon Glacier on firm snow, partially following an old faded track. Then I took the connection to Curtis Glacier and Hells highway to the Sulphide, snow in this section was begining to soften and allowed steeper skinning. The weather was following its forecast, but the clouds seemed to thicken as I skinned towrds and part way up the summit pyramid where I switched to step kicking up the mash potatoe proto corn to the incredible summit. Views needless to say were incredble... I had to downclimb a 3 foot rock band 5 feet below the exact summit, but other than that I was able to ski to the entrance of the chute (skiiers right). The snow was very fun to ski, a little on the manky side, but only a little and I skiied fall line down to the Sulfide arcing big turns to the entrance of the South West face. I met two skiiers Eric and Shawn skinning up the Sulphide, they were stoked about the good corn conditions. Here they are skinning towrds the summit: I was a little nervous about dropping the SW face blind, as there are extensive cliffs at the bottom which might prove difficult to get through. However I was prepared to epic hard if need be, and I had studied various pictures, so I had a pretty good idea of what was below me. I found ripper corn dropping into the 4500' face... I had to "use the force" as I skiied lower down, there were many big cliffs below, and I skiied several very steep and little chutes through trees as I weaved my way down thinking it will go, it will go. I came across some bear tracks - strange in such an area... With a little bit of luck, I found a way through the cliffs, although I did have to pack the skiis for a 40' stretch down some some steep rocky trees, safe passage of which was only possible because of vines and pines to use hang on to. The gully: The light was dwindleing, but I was not concerned, just very stoked to have skiied the face in such good conditions, and not haveing to epic hard - getting cliffed out at the bottom.. The arm was a mile or so and 2500' above, but the snow was moist, which made steep skinning possible. I attained the arm as the last of the glowing red sun set, an experience wich will stay with me till the end of my days. I skiied down the arm and through the resort and back to the truck on mostly manky frozen crusts with the aid of headlamp. Super stoked to have had such a rewarding smooth going alpine day. The same can not be said about an experience a few days later...

thanks for the tr, looks like you had a fantastic time. the olys really got jipped on snow this year eh? or at least thats what i heard a while back.

supa easy, just start from tha lot and traverse the funky runnels to the bottom -- way shorter -- way smaller than it looks from the area.

Trip: Heather Meadows - random shots Date: 4/26-27/2009 Trip Report: Got out for a few hours both yesterday and the day before, should be up there today too... was planning a trip to the alpine, but local shots seemed more attractive, choice of aspect, lazy start times, low/no crowds, corn/mashpotatoes, cooking salmon burgers in the parking lot with cold beers in the sun, this is the lazy spring skiing that i appriciate from time to time over hard charging all day routes. skiied stoneman, table, and herman. stoneman had one or two runnels but all in all was good corn to mash potatoes. Table was good in the sun, but the minute the sun left, or lost it's direct power - snow crusted to various degrees. I caught the southsouthseast shoulder of herman in sublime corn for the most part. my camera lcd screen totally busted the other day, so these are all none scope guesstimation shots - Stoneman: table lookin purtty

Trip: Mt. Rainier - Gib Chute Date: 4/21/2009 Trip Report: I like it when a plan comes together, and that is exactly what happend on monday afternoon when I was rushing and struggeling through madenning traffic on 1-5 to get to Paradise before they locked the gait. I hit all the green lights, took the right turns, got in the right line at the grocery store. I left around 230am and skinned easy snow up past Muir which is a considerably easier way to get up the mountain rather than the more Southerly routes like the Kautz where you have to loose elevation to get up to the Turtle. I negotiated some crevasses and gained the base of the chute as it was getting light. Stopping for a break, I realized I had left all my food back in my truck. It would have been pretty weak sauce to turn around then cause of that. Someone had skiied the chute the day before, nice tracks! Rock and ice fall were minimal as I climbed. Above the chute I found some very nasty hidden crevasses, but I safely negotiated them with a little prodding. The wind picked up considerably and I had to sport mittens/goggles/baclava. The way was really straightforward, but those rollers/false summits sure teased me a couple times. It was a relief to get a break from the wind as I got inside the protection of the crater and made my way to Columbia Crest. The skiing up high was not great, but not all that bad, variable sustrugi and hardpack. I was careful to avoid the hidden crevasses just above Gib rock. The snow softended considerably as I entered the chute, but still icy in spots, and with a few chunks of debris here and there, also the previous skiier had sidesliped the narrow upper chute, leaving a challenging variable ice crust track which made the turns a little interesting. The meat of the chute was ripper, and put me in awe of the bueatiful theater encloseing it. Variable protocorn and mash potatoes down through Muir, gotta git some spring wax. Tacos and beer at the Highlander and a fire at hoarse camp made for a great end to a great day.

Trip: MRNP - Carbonation Date: 4/18-19/2009 Trip Report: Dave, Pete, Sky, Eric and me set out for some fun on the north side of the dawg. We started from the Mowich Lake road closure at about 8 miles from the lake. Skinning was not to difficult in the soft wet snow. We got up to the Spray Park area and set up camp under a veiled Rainier. The lenticular grew overnight and in the morning it became apparent that our ambitious plans would have to wait for another day. We skiined up to the highpoint of Spray Park area, and skiied a bueatiful steepish 1500' line down to the Carbon Glacier. The glacier is looking much more covered than my last ski attempt on LR last July when it was in a state of total chaos. On our way back we got some great snow down from the pass above Mowich Lake. The ski back down the road went surpriseingly quickly despite it's very low angle. Adding up the miles it came out to be around 30 round trip, but it really did seem like less, i'm glad I taped my toes and heels though. Had a blast. Thanks guys!

Trip: Whitehoarse Mtn. - NW face Date: 4/16/2009 Trip Report: I had scoped out the route a week before but I wasent satisfied with conditions, today was not much better, and I figured if I was going to ski it this season, then it better be soon cause the low elevation snow is already quickly melting. I owe a big thanks to Hannah and Kyle who skiied it the day before and stomped out a bomber skin track, thanks guys! The approach was a breeze and I quickly was at the ginormous avalanche debris pile wich covered the entire lower face in massives piles, some reaching perhaps 100' off the ground. Navigateing this terrain was tedious because of the variable nature of softness, and hidden holes. I lost Hannah and Kyles tracks and made my way up climbers right through steep woods and gullys till I reached skinable snow. The snow was soft, very soft, but the I was confident that slab danger was low even though I was triggering wet sluffs, they were predictable and manageable. Snow started to glop to my skins and top sheets, turning my ordinarly reasonably light volkl mantras into slow heavy burdens. I busted out the sunscreen and wet up the skins, which to my surprise worked well. The snow changed characer as I gained elevation and went from isothermal mank to crust to wet pow to full on deep light pow as I crossed the summit feild to the summit bump. Needless to say views were eyepoping and I skiied off the summit with more ski plans than I had before. I predictably cut out a thin wet slab which exposed a slightly crusty bed surface. Below that, I found a shmorgesbourg of conditions, includeing the deep slop which readily and predictably avalanched at every turn steep enough for it to run. Then down through a differant shwack route to the base. Very fun day on a very cool and unique hill. Maybe this is where the derranged romanian lived? He was said to emerge from the woods on occasion of necessity and steal chickens and odds and ends from the locals who boarded the wild woods.

Trip: J - burg - CJ couloir ski Date: 4/23/2009 Trip Report: CJ from recon last November The CJ is one of those lines that has haunted me since I first layed eyes on it - it is an extrodinarily asthetic bueatiful line, however it is gaurded by the deadly hanging seracs of the Sill Glacier, rockfall, and deep moats in late season. When I first saw it, I knew I was going to ski it, it was just a matter of how safely, and at what expense of nerves. As it turned out, I am happy with how I dealed with the hazards, and climbing and skiing it was a bueatiful experience. The road was gated at the Eldorado trailhead (~2.5 miles from the base of the CJ couloir, not a difficult distance by any means. I had intended to just scope out the sun exposure and condition of the CJ, but I found it to be in the shade as it came into veiw, as I skiied closer - the shade stayed, and soon I found myself mid couloir content with snow stability and objective hazards, however there were constant avalanches ripping down the massive sun exposed rock walls of Johannesburg. As I neared the col, the snow deepend to waist deep powder, and I dug several hasty pits, finding mostly stable snow, with isolated pockets here and there of more consolidated but non reactive slabby snow. Orographic clouds rolled lazily on the other side of the col, and across the Cascade River valley. Forbidden, Sahele, an Eldorado emerged and dissappeard into the fair weather clouds. I was super stoked to be on the col about to ski the CJ in powder conditions! The CJ which had been shaded for my entire climb was starting to recieve its very breif window of indirect sunlight as the sun shown down from its directly above the col. Time to ski fat powder! I had to manage my sluffs on the steep upper part and only make two turns or so and wait for my sluff to drain cause they were getting big. As the angle mellowed a little I was able to open up and ski fast powder. I found manky snow in the runnels, then some easy debris lower to the fan where it was warm and wet. Very stoked to have skiied one of those lines which has ocupied my thought for so long.

i read his book a couple years ago, good read with a frightening grotesque account of his time in the slot. Jim - I didn't get the impression he was an idiot. Seemed like he learned about the mountains without a teacher, and got lucky a number of times, I remmember admireing his passion.

pay attention to this - http://www.nwac.us/ - but evalutate the situation yourself too.

some services i have experience with : light construction, concrete, drywall, painting, yardwork, gutter cleaning, hedge trimming, window cleaning, house cleaning, gardening, digging, roofing, tree removal, log work, changeing brakes in pre 90s vehicles, change vehicle oil, spark plugs, distr. air filter, check timeing, change starter fuel pump, filter etc...

the cops / tow truck fucked me over this morning... exp tags...towed my rig, (almost while i was still asleep in the back) $$$ to get it out of inpound.. i am a strong experienced semi/skilled laborer - can anyone line me up with one or a few days of work? (seattle to bellingham area or anywhere inbetween)

wtf ?

Sobo - it's weird how dreams can be so twisted - when we are so normal! but seriously - your dream appears to be fairly straight forward - although brutal -- someone fucked with your son - and you fucked back, it's like a swarzenager movie. My dream with the dogs - i can't make sense of - i love dogs - it would take some kind of serious self defense situation for me to have to shoot one, not like it was in my dream last night. But i am not an analyizer, I don't need to make sense of it all - after all it was just a dream - floating thoughts joined by the unconcious - maybe there is some deep psycological meaning -- and maybe there's not. It is not for me to tell - nor do I give a shit.

i only mention this because it's kinda like dejavu cause i just started a dream diary this morning - (dream diary = write down dreams first thing in the morning.) i was with someone, but i don't remmmeber who, and we crossed somekind of old concrete bridge, or barrier over murky waters to a deep looking cave that we were going to explore. as we were nearing the entrance of the cave, several vicious dogs came out and attacked us, and we were able to beat them off with sticks and run back across the bridge without the dogs chaseing us. we went back some time later with rifles to the cave, and the dogs came out again, this time however I was able to tame the dog that had previously attacked me - but we shot them anyway... after that - the cave turned into a gymm with hot chicks doing exercieses and stuff, then things got to vauge to remmember.

i take showers at the Y when i can (cause it's the only place near the ham) and i walk by the climbing wall everytime. it looks pretty fun. they say you need to get a belayer cert (15$) and then a membership(30$monthly) or a day pass (10$ vs. the 1$ i pay for the shower pass) anyone climb at the Y? do you have a ymca grant/scholorship? they say you need to fill out a fat packet, then wait. 30$ is reasonable, but still spendy. i stopped climbing ever since i fell off an old granite resivour building (into a marsh) 10 or more years ago on a cold day when my mind was less than clear.

awesome Ryan! thanks! sorry to hear about the snow bunny illness.

G-spotter - yea it's the next face over to lookers right of the curtis cirque.

Trip: Mt. Shuksan - West Face - ski Date: 2/21/2009 Trip Report: This truely was a sick descent in several ways. The face was 90% covered in shallow powder, and second - I had a pretty bad cold; I mention that not in narrsasistic glory, but rather to tell it how it was. After chugging some cough syrup and sudafed I set out from the White Salmon lot around 5:00am and skinned up to hemispheres in the windless dawn, then skinned the arm for a ways to the point where you can drop past lake Anne (2k from lot). I could see a shadowy west face, storeing it's goods in the cold. beta view of most of face I skiied firm south faceing slopes, crusty and powy east slopes down the 2k to the valley bottom. The crux of the face was low down on it, as it is cliffy there. From far off it looked as though I would have to negotiate a rockband, however no such shenanagins were required. (approaching from lower slopes in the morn) I found powder as I made my way up through the steep lower portion. I had memorized what might be a possible way through the rockband earlier from the arm. I wound up through a chute which led to a shelf, where I found a hidden diagonal ramp leading to another chute which led to the broder slopes above, I found powder in all of it except the diagonal ramp which was faceing south and therefore a little cruty. (looking down from above the cliffy section from later in the day) I continued up following lookers right as best as I could so as to stay in the shadow of the high rocky ridge on the right. Pow was to be found in the north faceing shadow of this ridge. I did stray from fall line here and there as required by various rock features. (mid face) About three quarters of the way up there was about 500 to a k of slightly wind affected snow, here, the wind affect was magnified around small terrain features - where I found some isolated shallow windslab that was very reactive. As I climbed higher and higher, the pow got phater and fater. Winds were light, and the sun was bright. the views were nice I contemplated crossing the broad flat platue to the summit pyramid; however the slopes of the pyramid were looking thin, and I still had to skin up 2k to get back up the arm, so I topped out above the face at around 7.9k. 4.3K of powder awaited me directly below. The turns down were ripper high speed big arcs for the most part. There were a few spots which were a little many due to wind/sun crust, but for the most part - the entire face was 4-8 inch powder. The face (except for the lower cliffy section) was not as steep as the North Face (tr from 2.7.09 zoom for tracks I was surprised at how little my previously "bad" cold had adversely affected me, despite constantly blowing snot rockets, feeling "weird" and my ears unable to pressurize, It had not been that difficult of a hardship to endure. The funky felling grew and I thought I saw ski tracks and people skiing slopes in areas where when I looked closer - it was just a tree, or a wind feature in the snow. The light was getting lower, and I quit oggeling my line, and trying to decipher imaginary ski tracks elsewhere, and skinned in high gear for the 2k from the valley floor at 3.6 up to the arm at 5.6k. The snow in many areas was a little wet down low, so it made fur superb skin gripping. I made the arm as the sun silouetted Baker, and followed it a little ways west where I could get as stragiht of a 2k north faceing pow line as I could back to the lower lot, which I made in low light. I love this high pressure - a gift from the cousin of Urll, but I'm stoked about the storms in the forecast!

Trip: Mt. Shuksan - Curtis Blow - ski Date: 2/18/2009 Trip Report: I left the lower lot a little past 8 this morning, and skined up to chair 8, then up towrds Hemispheres with the lift buzzing overhead. I should have skined to the top of the lift, and then up the bootpack - but I choose to skin up chooped powder on a steep sub-shoulder feature off the arm, this proved time consuemingg and irritateing - another reminder I need to get some ski crampons. Once on top - The bootpack/skintrack was well tracked in, and I made good time heading east on the the rolly knobs of the arm. Finding the entry to the downslope traverse towrds the Curtis was fairly easy, and I got a few nice turns before i began traversing. The snow had changed character from the north side, and was now breakable crust, with abundaunt frozen avi debris. The Curtis was still mostly in the shade as it came into view. I found variable snow climbing the gully syestem - pow, breakable crust, frozen lanch balls, icy scoured areas... but as I got into the sun - everything softend... one area in particluar got a little on the wet side: That same area would sluff fairly heavily when I later cut it, and skiied it. I encountered a funky bergshrund towrds the top of the Blow, at first I thought it was an old wall to wall crown, but as I got closer, and prodded it, I descovred it's dark secret. Above the shrund - the angle eased off, and I switched back to skins for easier travel. I skined up to the base of the north side of the summit pyramid, and lunched in bueatiful weather. Then began my descent on low angle sunny slopes - it was important not to get carried away as I neared the Blow, there was a lot of exposed glacial ice at the entrance which - needless to say - would be easy to loose an edge on... The snow was mostly excellant, wet up high, where I cut several wet loose snow sluffs. The meat of the gully was mostly good slide path, which was icy on the way up - but softened to enjoyable quality for the way down (def not corn though) As I got into the narrow gullies down low, I found some nice dry powder (with the occasional blue serac chunk) then some more wet avied mank etc... more tracks Snacking on the Curtis, I witnessed several WL-N-R2-D1-S's in The Fisher Chimney area. I skinned back up the arm with pelnty of sun to spare, then some rad steep and deep down northfaceing arm - then down through the resort back to the lower lot.

avi lungs are good for soft slab, loose snow, and possibly wet lanches (assumeing you do not hit trees/rocks/cliffs when entrained), but neither it or beacons and experienced partners could save you harm if you were to be caught in a bone crunching hard slab avalanche.

Trip: Mt. Rainier - Fuhrer Finger ski Date: 2/3/2009 Trip Report: Drew, Hannah, and I skiied Rainier from Columbia Crest to Nisqually Bridge yesterday. We left Paradise around midnight (after a 4 hour sleepless attempt at sleeping - due in part to one of the notorious paradise foxes harrasing me in my fitful sleep attempt, they apparently left Drew and Hannah alone.) Skinning up to Pan Point - the snow had a interesting zipper-crust like quality but the zipper crust was actually 2cm+ thick - this overlayed a m/f-ish crust layer which overlayed a thickish layer of dry snow - we found this snow quality up to about 7k - and we suspected it to turn to mank with sunshine - however it never morphed into mank, and instead became a corn-like ski surface in the afternoon... We found hardish styrofoam or dragon-skin as Drew described it - in the Finger. At around 11k (towrds the top of the narrow part of the Finger) dawn began to light the east: Drew and Hannah at a col like feature around 11k in the finger area The wind also began to magnify the cold cold air, and we were looking for a rest area to refuel for an hour or so out of the wind which was cruely numbing us. We futilely tried several areas, then Drew scoped a rocky "cave" type feature which turned out to be money. As we continued up, we found more and more soft snow, so donning the skins was an obvious choice to negotiate the upper Nisqually Glacier (which is usually heavily crevassed) where we found mostly wind packed pow - intersperesed with the occasional difficult skinning knar. The wind grew as we ascended, and we were being knocked around as the crater came into view. We skinned funky rimed windpack / windboard / and rime ice to the crater in HIGH winds. Standing on Columbia Crest without being blown off was a difficult feat. Thankfully it was relitevely warm and sunny - 20dgish - otherwise - we would have needed warmer wear... Skiing down was an deeply enjoyable change from skiing up - even though the first 1000' or so was sustrugified/rimed mank. The Upper Nisqually was mostly ripper wind packed pow, then firmer corneskish/windboard snow nearing and through the finger - all of wich was very smooth and easy turning. Surpriseingly we found good to great snow on the Wilson Glacier: Amar Andalkar had seen us earlier in the day from the Muir snowfield, and he decided to ski the Nisqually Chute (which looked like ripper corn) to try and catch us as we skiied down the lower Nisqually towrd the bridge. He successfully and unexpectedly intercepted us around the base of the Nisqually Chute, and we all enjoyed slightly sloppy-wet-snow turns down to the bridge. Where after a not-too-long-wait Hannah and Amar scored a ride up to their cars, and in no time we were off to much needed greasy food and beer. Thanks Hannah, Drew, and Amar!

Ade, I'm not familiar with the ice lines in that area, although I did bump into a few stoked ice climbers in the parking lot.