Gaston Posted April 2, 2009 Posted April 2, 2009 Trip: Stuart Range - Ski Traverse Date: 3/27/2009 Trip Report: Starting Friday, March 27th, JW and I spent several nights ski touring through the Stuart Range. I don't have the ability to post photos right now, but I will try to cover all the salient observations we made. Day 1: Ski up eight mile road and into the basin under the Sherpa Glacier. Day 2: Ski up the Sherpa, up the SE shoulder up to the False summit. Ski down. Day 3: Ski east into the basin under Argonaut. Cross a non-technical col and descend into the Porcupine Creek drainage. Ascend to top of Colchuck Glacier, ski up Colchuck, then ski all the way down to Colchuck lake. Day 4: Ski back to Icicle Creek road. Snow coverage is fairly thin up to 5500', then decent above (schrunds on Sherpa gl. were not fully closed up). The NE face of Stuart is beautiful right now, but probably in poor climbing shape, with delaminated ice streaks over the lower slabs. What little we could see of the NW flank of the mountain looked a little bettter; the NW face couloir might just be in. Dragontail looks pretty dry. The runnels on TC do not appear to be formed at all, and the N Face looked like snow and rock. The NE couloir on Colchuck looked fine for climbing, but bony for skiing. In general, the mixed routes looked like like they were in good shape maybe a week before we showed up, or just before the last warming/rain event. Temps came down toward the end of our trip, with a low of -11 C on sunday afternoon; maybe the ice will reform during April? It's still reasonable to do a ski tour in the range, with little or no booting on roads or trails. Big couloirs seem a little thin right now, however. North facing, open runs (Sherpa, Ice Cliff, Stuart Glacier, Colchuck Glacier) still have some good snow hanging on. Hope this helps someone! Let me know if I can provide any other specifics. Cheers Quote
AlpineK Posted April 2, 2009 Posted April 2, 2009 Right on Post some of the skiing pictures when you can. Forget the climbing ones. Who cares. Quote
penoyar Posted April 2, 2009 Posted April 2, 2009 How does the North Buttress couloir on Colchuck look? Just as bony as its neighbor the NE couloir? Thanks for all the info, looking forward to the pics! Quote
Gaston Posted April 4, 2009 Author Posted April 4, 2009 North Buttress Couloir looked pretty good, as I recall. I'm sure the NE would go, too. Quote
Spiral_Out Posted April 4, 2009 Posted April 4, 2009 Thanks for the beta-recon buddy! Glad to see you getting after it. So would you say TC is a lost cause? Quote
goatboy Posted April 7, 2009 Posted April 7, 2009 gaston, comment ca va? (oui, dans la pomplempousse) nice work and bon temps... A beer in seattle on a spring day some time??? -Etienne Quote
Maxtrax Posted April 8, 2009 Posted April 8, 2009 Did you get much of a look at the NE couloir on Colchuck? I'm curious as to how much snow/ice there is vs. rock. Quote
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