[TR] Coleman Pinnacle - West Ridge 11/16/2008

[alpenho]

Trip: Coleman Pinnacle - West Ridge

 

Date: 11/16/2008

 

Trip Report:

Started from Heather Meadows, walked clear road until about 100 ft beyond Lake Ann TH, whereupon we were able to skin to Artist point. Beyond Artist point, a few short carries and/or creative skinning all the way out along Ptarmigan ridge. Snow was soft slush on top of a hard consolidated layer, so sidehilling resulted in some slippage, but I think we have laid down a good track. Skinned up to the W Ridge of Coleman, ditched the skis, and scrambled to the top, slightly tricky with ski boots, encountering intermittent snow drifts but mostly dry rock and vegetation.

Coleman Pinnacle (foreground) from the east:

We dropped to the saddle with the intent to ascend the West subsidiary summit and ski off the north side, but when we got there encountered bulletproof ice. So we had some lunch, and dropped down along a big snowdrift on the southeast side. It was great soft corn.

Our route up in green, down in red:

we skied down to the snow feature informally known as "goat throat", dropped down to the bottom and skinned back up and out just as it got dark. Lot of melt during the day but the ski out was essentially the same as in.

[A2THEK]

Nict to see some RABID skiers, gettin after it! Won't be long till that's all snorkel deep pow!