Alisse Posted June 23 Posted June 23 Trip: Taste of the Ptarmigan - Hot Southern styleTrip Date: 06/22/2024Trip Report: On Thursday morning, we set out to ski the Ptarmigan Traverse, south to north, over four days, with a Dome summit attempt. I know you have so many questions already.... TL;DR: bailed on the route on the second day when there was no solid overnight refreeze and at 10am we were sliding out while skinning the first major traverse, setting off fair-sized wet loose slides. Longer version: Desperate to find ski partners for a four-day stretch with a good weather window, I turned to the internet. To my happy surprise, J responded positively to my message on the TAY website! We talked on the phone and sussed out each others' experience and skills. I also convinced her that based on conditions I found on a recent ski trip, the Ptarmigan would be in good shape for us. So, we decided that setting out together wouldn't mean certain abandonment in a crevasse or either of us having to act as a guide. Her partner Z would also join. They were both on splits. "Going out with unknown splitboarders is risky business," @Hoo sagely advised, one of my favorite mountain partners (found here on CC!) and a splitboarder himself. After chatting with J, though, I felt confident that these splitboarders had good split-ski skills and it would work out. We left my car at the Eldo trailhead, stashed beers in the river, and got to know each other a bit on the drive around to the Downey Creek trailhead. I could tell pretty quickly that it was going to be a fun trip. We set out at 4am with skis on packs and the trail was fairly fast and easy for the first several miles. Then it got pretty damn brushy. Then we encountered the first of a few giant blowdowns that required crawling under on hands and knees. We turned up the Bachelor Creek trail and gained some elevation and more brushiness. We continued on, following some flagging and up the bypass trail which skips some brush and slide alder; there's still mandatory slide alder (going at probably B2, or B2++ with skis). Soon enough we got to the crossing of Bachelor Creek and came across two giant tents, stuff hanging in trees, and a guy doing some relaxed PT with a stretchy band. Hello! We chatted with two very friendly dudes who were doing a glamping+Dome+Sinister trip. They were combining the comforts of Fireball, a near-complete six-pack, and camp chairs with the masochism of the 75-pound backpacks they had humped up there. Are these guys awesome or insane? Soon we were getting our feet wet in the boggy melting-out trail and then postholing a bit in the patchy snow. And then did some real elevation gain and discussed how, wow, our backpacks probably weigh like 45+ pounds with all our stuff and skis and boots! Finally, up around 5400', we could see more of the route and the continuous snow, and we were quite thrilled to take the skis off packs and start skinning. Unfortunately, as we approached Cub Pass, it was nearly 3pm and the snow was total slop. Sliding out in an uncontrollable way into melted-out heather was demoralizing and a little worrisome; we ended up booting a bit to avoid more of that and continued carrying over the pass and down to Cub Lake (melting out quickly). The next stretch of time included about an hour or so of actual rain and about an hour or so of fiddling with an apparently too-dirty-to-function-correctly stove. Luckily we were able to heat water enough to get our dinners rehydrated. The stove not functioning correctly was worrisome for the traverse; we needed it for water. J said she would clean it in the morning and that would probably do the trick. Glamping Guys (I think Alex and...Adam? I'm sorry if they read this...) showed up -- one highlight was the Trader Joe's bag somewhat strapped to the outside of one of their packs. How it survived the alder, I do not know. I was tired. I knew we weren't setting any records with our pace, but how did it take us nearly 12 hours to go like 11.5 miles? I think I was in my bivy by around 8:30pm... We hadn't discussed an alarm time and there was still this question of the stove. Around 6:30 or so I watched the Glamping Guys head out with summit packs. Our party had slept in a little more than we maybe should have (but didn't make a difference in the end) and J cleaned the stove which did fix the issues so continuamos! After a short and chill bootpack, we were skinning again and ten minutes later arrived at Itswoot Pass. Greeting us was an older couple that we had chatted with the afternoon before at the lake and a second couple -- one of whom says his ... uncle? Grandfather? was part of the original Ptarmigan party, age 18! We look across the way and see Dome, and the Dome-Dana col, and discuss the time, crappy snow conditions, and all our options. We decide to at least get to the col, and we start across the long traverse. It's terrible from the start. Super, super sloppy snow. At one point, I kick off a little wet loose slide and it entrained more snow and runs pretty far, including pouring over a boulder that's halfway melted out. We get to a little rocky outcropping that we have to carry skis over, and we have another chat there at around 6200'. The mountains are giving us red lights; we can't travel safely in consequential terrain and we can't skin very safely or ski very quickly with how the snow is. It just is not what we expected or want for this traverse to go. We make the sad decision to bail from our traverse and head back to the ridge for some kind of plan B. We hang out all day in this beautiful place, watch a few natural wet loose slides come down (one quite large), keep an eye on all the climbers that pass us and head up and over to climb Dome. We hang with the marmots and the pikas in the rocks, build bivy spots in the snow. J has a lot of energy and boots up toward Spire Col about 600' or so and takes a couple of runs. She builds a snow cat. Our plan is to wake up really early and see if the snow has refrozen overnight -- if so, we'll check out Spire Col and maybe do a run down the western lobe of the Dana Glacier? With increasing freezing levels, I am not convinced it will happen, but try to remain hopeful. As the sun sets over the ridge, the three of us head up together and take a run down -- sticky and heavy, but not the very worst I've ever skied. We return to our ridge camp and Glamping Guys are there! They were going to leave the snow cat drinking a nip of Fireball but happily we get to chat and hear about their adventures in post-holing, the looming cornice on Dome, and how far it really is between Dome and Sinister. We really enjoyed chatting and following along with these two and I was so impressed with their smiles and attitudes even after 14+ hours of post-holing! That evening, the full strawberry moon (on the solstice) came up with cool clouds in front -- memorable. At 3:30am the next morning, my alarm went off and I poked the snow outside my bivy fort. Soft. No crust, no refreeze whatsoever. I shuffled over to J and Z and asked for their confirmation and permission to go back to sleep for a few hours. We all agreed: no go. Sigh. We packed up and headed down. The ski out was pretty alright! There were certainly a few fun turns in there. The slide alder was much easier going down. The crawling under the blowdown was about the same. Poor Z's feet were rubbed raw by the end of the trail. Finally we were back to the start and un-did the car shuttle. Sigh. The beers back in the Cascade River were located easily and we finally said our good-byes. Thank you, J and Z, for a memorable trip! Gear Notes: DrugsApproach Notes: Brushy 2 2 Quote
olyclimber Posted June 25 Posted June 25 I hope they at least shared some malt liquor spicy drink! Quote
JonParker Posted June 27 Posted June 27 On 6/23/2024 at 3:33 PM, Alisse said: Are these guys awesome or insane? Yes. Sorry to hear it turned out too warm and sloppy, but I dig all the positive spin here. 1 Quote
JasonG Posted June 28 Posted June 28 So much pain going up that way! I admire the effort for sure. Was the thinking that you wanted to ski north facing slopes? And pretty wild all the people way back in there! It's not exactly an easy spot to get to. 1 Quote
tanstaafl Posted July 1 Posted July 1 Glad to see you're still getting after it, and that is an impressive dedication to skiing! I decided after a failed trip to ski Glacier a few years ago that I am just not up for more than a couple of hours of carrying skis and boots on a overnight pack; ouch. 1 Quote
Alisse Posted July 2 Author Posted July 2 On 6/28/2024 at 4:11 PM, JasonG said: Was the thinking that you wanted to ski north facing slopes? The thinking was just...the person I found on TAY had already walked it north to south and wanted to do it S-N. 1 Quote
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