Kevin_Grove Posted February 22, 2008 Posted February 22, 2008 Trip: North Sister - Thayer Glacier Headwall Date: 2/17/2008 Trip Report: On Sunday, Chris and I headed into North Sister via Pole Creek. I have been wanting to ski the Thayer Headwall for awhile and was shut down three times last spring due to poor conditions. After seeing how good things were on Saturday, I had a feeling the Thayer was going to be in good shape. The road was plowed for a little ways, but stopped about 7-8 miles and about 2000 vertical from the trailhead. Not to be detered, we brought skate gear and skated in on the nice, firm crust. Chris skating in. We ditched the skate gear at the trailhead and skinned the rest of the way in. Chris approaching the East Face of North. We went our seperate ways and I booted up the thayer headwall route. The conditions were super with 3-4 inches of corn on top of a firm base. I stopped at the saddle between the two summit pinnacles (about 50 feet below the summit) and headed down. Looking down from the top of the Thayer Headwall. Half way down the route. The conditions were perfect corn skiing, as good as it gets in a very cool alpine setting....until I skied close to where the route pinches down and faces more directly East instead of the top SE aspect. This was now in the shade and was quite firm and still pretty steep. I had to side slip for a ways through the notches until the angle lessoned and I could get back onto some softer snow. We met back up at the base of the east face, packed up, and skied out. Cruising back on the road with much lighter gear on our backs. Quote
Mountain_Shots Posted February 22, 2008 Posted February 22, 2008 Good job Kevin! Was wondering what the conditions were like. Quote
luvshaker Posted February 22, 2008 Posted February 22, 2008 Mad Props!!! Thanks for the report. -Inspired Quote
sweatinoutliquor Posted February 22, 2008 Posted February 22, 2008 Impressive line Kevin, and some great shots on the way down! Way to get after it this past weekend you two! Quote
pink_chalk Posted March 11, 2008 Posted March 11, 2008 Kevin Grove: Not to put you on the spot, but how long did it take to skate in w/ gear? Approx. 2000 V/F, correct? Thanks for posting!! Quote
olwilli Posted March 12, 2008 Posted March 12, 2008 i'll answer for kevin, i think that it took us about an hour or so to skate in at a relaxed pace, steady as it was uphill, but with a long day ahead of us, it was very much in control/mellow. but for the most part was pretty firm, got softer in some spots up higher cheers, chris Quote
pink_chalk Posted March 12, 2008 Posted March 12, 2008 Thanks Chris. For in control/mellow that was a fairly good pace Did you guys camp just the first night? Jennifer Quote
olwilli Posted March 12, 2008 Posted March 12, 2008 no camping, but that would be a beautiful spot to camp! left bend 6:30ish i think??? and then stopped in sisters for late lunch when we were done, not too long of a day but again it's all downhill on the way out! Quote
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