[TR] Snowfield Peak - Neve Glacier 4/24-25/2004

[forrest_m]

Climb: Snowfield Peak -Neve Glacier

 

Date of Climb: 4/24-25/2004

 

Trip Report:

Climb: Snowfield Peak - Neve Glacier

 

Date of Climb: 4/24-25/2004

 

Trip Report:

snowfield peak from camp at neve-colonial glacier col

 

more pictures

 

February, 2000 Dan and I stumble down from the summit of Colonial Peak, our minds dull and focused on the car, already lost in valley shadows 7,000 feet below. The beauty of the terrain we’re moving through barely registers, it’s only the postholing down slope after slope of fresh snow that finally gets me thinking about skis. The light bulb comes on. I stop to look around: this high valley is perfect terrain for turns. Wide open slopes descend from rocky peaks at almost every aspect. The mysterious Neve Glacier to the south promised adventure on peaks invisible from the road. Someday, I think, I’ll come back…

 

Four years later, we stand on the side of the road, strapping skis and boot to our packs. Each of us opts for a different method, and I wonder if this is some kind of low-budget psychological test:

 

AlpineK: Skis in side compression straps, tips tied together, with boots lashed to the back. Boots are oriented differently, one on the side sole up, one on the back, sole down. Practical, unfussy, not too worried about theory.

 

Gordy: Skis in side compression straps but leaves his tips free. Tails at waist level. Ties his boots upside down on top of the pack with the toes pointed downward, using the ski runaway straps to secure them. By far the neatest looking package, but rather top heavy and tall. Methodical, detail oriented, possibly stubborn.

 

Chris: Skis also in side compression straps, tips tied, with boots in the bindings. Simple system, appears ready to ski off at any moment, but a good 14” wider than anyone else. Optimist.

 

Forrest: Skis together in pack back flap, boots stuffed inside pack. Makes a lumpy package, not optimal comfort, but a clean, low center-of-gravity package for bushwacking. Pessimist.

 

Ok, maybe not, but I’m looking for clues. I’m the link between the others, who had never met one another before last night, and I’m hoping that everyone will be compatible. We get off to a bad start when Gordy spends the first half of Saturday calling Kurt “Colin” by mistake. On the plus side, the climber’s trail around the right side of Pyramid Lake is easy to follow and the transition from dry trail to skinable snow is relatively brief, with only a few hundred feet of step-kicking. Once on the ridge, it takes crossing two knobs to learn that the ridge is best climbed by traversing the north side below the crest.

 

When we reach the notch at 5,400’ at the base of Pyramid’s north face, I’m relieved to see that the east-facing rock slabs have already completely melted down to bare rock, leaving the steep traverse to the Colonial Glacier exposed to slides only for two short 50-yard sections. We hurry across well spaced apart, casting apprehensive glances down at the labyrinth of avy. debris and glide cracks in the bowl below. We enter wonderland.

 

traversing below the e. face of pyramid peak to access the colonial glacier

 

The Colonial Glacier is hardly worth of the title, but it’s an amazing place nevertheless, a large flat basin surrounded by jagged peaks. We ski up to the Colonial-Neve col, named for the glaciers, not the peaks (this is a bit confusing, as the col is actually located between Neve Peak and an unnamed flat-topped peak to the west). But it’s a nice place, well stocked with flat cooking rocks, and we get our first view of our objective. Though it is sunny, a brisk wind is blowing, and we duck into the tents for a short nap. We emerge about 5 and make a quick ascent of Neve Peak. The afternoon light is getting quite nice as we peel the skins and ski down the icy and convex slope to the col between Colonial and Neve Peaks (see why this is confusing?) before sweeping around the corner again for a thousand feet of heavy powder in the golden sunset light. We climb back up to our col for dinner and Gordy makes up for any hard feelings by running the snow-melting operation until well after dark.

 

chris enjoying the sunset run

 

The night is surprisingly cold, so we spend a leisurely morning in camp waiting for things to soften up a bit. It is after 9 when we drop six turns down the back side of the col and then start skiing up across the Neve Glacier. Only the largest crevasses are visible; conditions for skinning are perfect, firm but with a velvety surface. We gain the upper bench and then cut switchbacks straight up below the summit pyramid as far as the steepening slope allows. About 200 feet below top, we ditch the boards and kick steps up a narrow, rock lined gully to the ridge, then some scrambling on third class rock puts us on the lower angled south side to scramble to the top.

 

After the obligatory game of name-that-peak, we set off down again. It takes us longer to reach our skis from the summit than to ski the rest of the way down. The snow varies between heavy powder, corn and slush with slight variations in aspect, encouraging us to ski fast and make big, swooping turns. It’s over far too soon, and we slog back up to pack up our camp. The snow is softening fast as we set off again, but it’s still pretty good skiing until we hit the flats; Chris and I both eat it hard when the wet snow grabs us suddenly. We’re leaning back to keep our tips up, which doesn’t give us much stability in tele gear. We slide as quickly as possible down the first half of the exposed traverse, then put our skins on at the protected island in the middle before shuffling quickly back up to the ridge crest. From there it’s three turns-traverse, three-turns traverse to the end of the decent skiing. Unfortunately, this doesn’t coincide with the end of the snow, and we engage in 500 feet of classic cascades subalpinism. We sidestep and traverse on our skis to avoid sinking up to our waists, but you’d be hard pressed to call it “skiing.” We were sipping raspberry milkshakes in Marblemount by 5.

 

Approach Notes:

To find the good trail up from Pyramid Lake, follow the right shoreline. On the descent we accidentally got off onto a smaller trail that eventually got us to the lake, but wasn't as good.

[slothrop]

That col makes for a pretty cool camp. Last fall I watched a family of ptarmigans, just turning white for the winter, foraging around the rocks.

 

[goatboy]

I love the low-budget psychology test section. Great touch!

 

I drove by Ross Lake the other day and slowed just a bit to gaze up at the Col by Colonial and Snowfield. Love to go up there sometime. Thanks for the inspiration!

[fastcj]

It was more of an IQ test than a phych test, and I failed...

 

The boots sticking off the sides of the pack were fine until we left the "maintained" trail at the lake. I quickly found my ski tips hung up in the branches above while simultaneously wedged in the narrow spots between trees. I then opted for a combination of Forrest's and Kurt's systems: one boot sticking out of the top of the pack and the other strapped upside down to the back of the pack.