Slesse Conditions 2017

[DanD99]

Hey there, I read somewhere on FB that the pocket glacier has already slid. Seems odd to have happened this early in the season considering the thick snow pack this year.

 

Has anyone been up there that can confirm that this is true?

 

Otherwise, ill probably go scout it in the next 2 weeks sometime and post an update.

[Rad]

Surely fake news.

[G-spotter]

Most of it blew out during a rain-on-snow in February. Rest is gone now. Buttress is still pretty wet/mixed but has been climbed

[JasonG]

Wow, I never would have guessed.

[Rad]

Most of it blew out during a rain-on-snow in February. Rest is gone now. Buttress is still pretty wet/mixed but has been climbed

 

Crazy!

[ivan]

i had a blow out in february

[bedellympian]

Can anyone speak to the road conditions? I want to get in there but I have a 2WD vehicle.

[G-spotter]

You might have to walk a little further. Or get a real man's vehicle.

[JasonG]

Thanks for keeping the old-school spirit of cc.com alive Dru!

[bedellympian]

Thanks G-spotter. I'll just walk. Leaving my truck in Oregon will save me 50% on gas... not worth the trade-off!

[canela]

Wondering about road conditions too- I wanted to get up to Rexford and have AWD- curious if the road is in similar condition to last year?

[marc_leclerc]

As of May I was driving to the TH in a stock sidekick without problems. There was one washout about 2-3 kms with some boulders, but easily negotiable in a jeep type vehicle. Could be better by now though.

 

Go get it while there is still snow on crossover. Seems like an unusually sweet year for NEB! Glacier gone early and still plenty of snow on the descent to boot ski. Makes for a helluva nice ride compared to talus hopping all the way out searching for water in the hot sun.

 

As for 2wd vs 4wd. It's nice to drive all the way to the TH, of course, but the approach is easy by alpine climbing standards and a 5km road walk add on shouldn't really be a big deal. I've walked from Chilliwack lake Rd to the mountain easily more than 20 times. Probably 15 times on skis even...

 

 

Edited July 14, 2017 by marc_leclerc

[marc_leclerc]

 

From air this April. Zoom in real close to see the missing chunk of glacier, lower right side of pocket cirque, and the angling serac wall left behind. Unfortunately a shitty photo but at least it's something.

 

I went up there within a couple days of the slide, and saw it all cleaned right down to rock, but didn't think to take pics.

[bedellympian]

Thanks Marc.

 

Did the deed last week. Got my 2WD Hyundai to the TH with minimal shenanigans but slow going (not recommended unless you don't care about your car's appearance and are comfortable driving rough roads).

 

Pocket Glcier is still there at the very top in a very small but tall segment.

 

The Crossover Descent had two sections that I felt there was not much detail in Blake's guide:

1. The raps off Parke are much closer to the summit than what the topo map suggests. Scramble up on top of the thing and find the shoulder between the two highest points, from there you will see the rap station.

2. Make sure you get to the meadows where you pick up the trail with lots of light. We got there as light was fading and never found the trail. We assumed it was way downhill and after way too much bushwhacking got cliffed out and had to head back up and over to intersect it by headlamp, not ideal.

 

20.5 hrs car-car seemed like a relaxed pace having not done any of it before. Hike in was 4 hrs, route was 8 hrs, descent with route finding errors was 8 hrs. Make sure you're comfortable on steep snow, loose rock. Stellar route.