Mount Ruth beta

[rockgirl77]

Has anyone attempted Ruth this season? If so, how were the conditions?

[TeleRoss]

I bet there's a lot of snow

bring your skis

[MountaingirlBC]

I'm planning to do it friday/saturday this week if the weather changes. Last weekend there was snow piled up blocking the road but nothing a bit of work with shovels couldn't clear. I had wanted to see how far up the road we could drive but after sking all day I was too lazy to shovel. We were able to drive 10.6km up the road to Heliotrope ridge to about 3000ft. Snow line was at about 9.5km. I haven't had a chance to look at the map and see what that means in terms of the access to Ruth yet.

[TrogdortheBurninator]

from UWCC board

http://uw.cascadeclimbers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=15124

[rockgirl77]

Thanks for sending the info. So, it looks like we are going to try for Ruth either next weekend or the weekend after, depending on the weather. I read the uw repord that Trogdor sent-thanks! Has anyone been up there since then? I was wondering how far you can get up the Nooksack River Road.

[rockgirl77]

Oh, and I did call the ranger station, but the person to whom I spoke really had no idea...She mumbled something about being able to drive 2-2.5 miles up the road.

[iluka]

Did you end up getting up Ruth this past weekend? Any beta on the road access to the Hannegan Pass trailhead?

[Alex]

Any beta on the road access to the Hannegan Pass trailhead?

 

The road was blocked with a 200 yard streach of snow that required a 4x4 hc vehicle sunday morning, after that it is completely bare and a complete slog for 2 gentle uphill miles until an enormous double log blocks all possible progress and will for quite some time. A tricked out real-man's jeep made it to this point Sun morning, but we hiked it in running shoes. After that its another 2 miles of snow covered road, mostly skinning now but by weeks' end I guarantee it will be the perfect mixture of sloppy goppy "wish i had my skis on for this" and bare road "wish i wasnt hiking this shit in tele boots" type of deal. The trailhead is under about 3 ft of snow. The trail up the valley has seen some traffic but not alot. I remember that thing being more steep for some reason, but its flatter than a pancake for miles up valley. Some neat looking ice lines had formed up there, though now "out". We didnt even get to Hannegan Pass before the slogging through mush and heat took its motivational toll. I'd say ideal conditions to get Ruth in a day are still 2 weeks out.