SqueelLikeAPig Posted July 5, 2002 Posted July 5, 2002 I was thinking about skiing the Emmons next weekend. Anyone know what conditions are like? Lots of crevasses, too icey.... etc.... Quote
pete_a Posted July 5, 2002 Posted July 5, 2002 I'm leaving tomorrow morning to take a shot at skiing this Emmons this weekend....I'll make sure to post a TR when I get back. I'm expecting to find the glacier still in a great shape, saw it from Steamboat Prow a couple weeks ago and then the 'corridor' looked crevasse free and the rest of the route appeared to avoid any major crevasse crossings... I'm just hoping that the top 1000-2000ft isn't a total sheet of unskiable ice, which I figure it could very well be. [ 07-05-2002, 10:31 AM: Message edited by: pete a ] Quote
Mike_Gauthier Posted July 5, 2002 Posted July 5, 2002 my sources say that the route is in GREAT shape for climbing and skiing... the inter glacier is a bit broken, but skiable too... they may some sections of ice up high on the emmmons/winthrop, and certainly conditions change daily, but the warm temps should make for great boarding/skiing on the upper hill. good luck, stop in at the schurman hut for up to date info. but i'd bring my gear if you're into it. good luck. mike Quote
pete_a Posted July 8, 2002 Posted July 8, 2002 well, I really wish I could write that after many attempts I finally got in a ski descent of the Emmons...but the weather crapped out on us on Sunday morning and we only managed to ski from 12,500ft. A cloud cap descended Sunday morning and by 7am we had pretty bad visibility at times and it was snowing...some friends of mine who were about a 1000 vf above said it was very icey and conditions were getting worse. So we figured we better just turn around and ski what we had already climbed rather than get caught in shit weather. We did run into a guy on randonee gear on the inter glacier who had skied it on Friday, said the snow above the schrund was icey sastrugai but still skiable (think survival skiing style turns though...) but that below the schrund was good, he had sunny weather which softened the slopes below the schrund and climbers reported corn snow conditions too. From what we could see the snow above where we turned around was still nice and smooth...it just needed a couple hours of direct sunlight to soften up. From 12,500ft down the skiing was pretty good, there are a few crevasses close to the bootpack but most of them are small and there are a couple spots where you are directly above the fall line of some pretty big holes, but all things considered skiing down was a hell of a lot of fun, not to mention I think it took us about twenty minutes to return to Schurman. We all skied with either a whippet pole or had an ice axe duct taped to a ski pole just in case, we also had two ropes in our team of three in case the rope carrier fell in a crevasse (the second rope was 35 meters of 7mm static line, the rope we climbed with was 35 meters of 8mm 'ice floss'), and we also all skied with a couple ice screws just in case we fell in something...whether you choose to take those safety precautions is of course totally up to you, but we felt that they made sense. Best of luck if you go, I'm sure it will be in good shape next weekend if the weather is stable and warm. I think I am done for the summer...I've spent several weekends trying to get it and I keep coming up short...maybe its time to move on to other mountains this summer and save a shot at the emmons for next year...or maybe after a day of rest I'll reconsider and I'll be back up there next weekend. [ 07-08-2002, 08:41 AM: Message edited by: pete a ] Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.