dmiller Posted June 13, 2004 Share Posted June 13, 2004 Arriving at Timberline Lodge on Friday night a few minutes before midnight, just enough time for me to make a short jaunt and get my bare minumum ten turns that I need to make to keep my ski streak alive, I did it but barely, that was too close! Then it's a cold night car camping, the wind was blowing fairly briskly. I can't help take notice many other climbers getting that midnight start. I'ts 9:30 a.m Saturday when I start my climb to the summit. With groomed slopes the first two miles and a well established boot pack all the way to the summit, this makes for a fairly easy and enjoyable ski outing. The last 500 hundred feet posed no real danger. With about a foot on snow that had fallen of the last few days higher up, ice was minimal. The bergschrund is not too opened up. Once on the Summit I traversed skiers right where I found more opened and climber free skiing. Snow had a thin ice layer on top on the top few hundred vertical feet but was easy to punch through. Lower down corn snow and some wind drifted snow made for nice fast turns. The surface all the way down to the Palmer Snowfield was smooth as butter when you avoided the boot packed areas. The snow conditions were also fairly stable with only the ice crust sliding off as I skied across my fall lines. Once on the main ski area I opted for skiing some park and popped off a couple of booters. The snow below 7000 feet started to get a bit sticky but not bad. I say this makes for a good ski outing if you feel comfortable hiking on 30-35 degree snow and ice (mainly last 500 vertical feet) plus you get to summit a volcanoe. The majority of the run is more steep than the Muir Snowfield. You can ski all the back to the car without any ski carries. Figure on a 4-7 hour round trip depending on your climbing and ski pace. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norman_Clyde Posted June 14, 2004 Share Posted June 14, 2004 Cool. How much longer would you estimate this route will be in? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmiller Posted June 15, 2004 Author Share Posted June 15, 2004 At least a couple of weeks. I'd like to do it again this Friday unless I find someone who wants to go skiing elsewhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterF Posted June 19, 2004 Share Posted June 19, 2004 Climb/Skied it yesterday. In a rather lazy start, I headed out from timberline at 11. Got to the top around 3 and it was amazing corn the whole way down. I was really amazed that it remained corn nearly the whole way down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neversummer Posted June 23, 2004 Share Posted June 23, 2004 Climbed and skied yesterday (the 21st) Planned on heading out from Tline at 7, didnt leave untill 11:00, So after some frustrating postholing, the snow firmed around 10000 and the last thousand went by quickly. Didnt really like the traverse above the Berg in alpine ski boots without crampons or an axe. Left the summit just after 2:15 The descent was good all the way back to the top of palmer, not sticky (GPS said 53.5 somwhere between the berg and crater rock) and if you hit the salted racer lanes the ski to the mile is good also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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