2016-06-19 - Interglacier Ski
Wonderful skiing on post-storm snow on a sunny Father's day. Thanks for the trip, everyone!
Weather redirected our weekend plans to ski the Interglacier, off of Steamboat Prow. Yesterday's storm brought what looked like 6 inches of fresh snow, making for a return to warm spring conditions.
We were able to transition just across the moraine from the glacier basin camp and noted that northern and eastern aspects in that vicinity had slid, with slope angles at 35+ degrees. We also observed one possibly skier-triggered avalanche on similar slopes. We felt comfortable with our route and were rewarded with fresh turns at higher elevations where the temps remained colder.
I'd been hearing about Steamboat Prow being a notable scramble, but couldn't find anything in trip reports that indicated anything about it. Turns out that's because coming up the interglacier, at least in these conditions, it's a walk-up ...
The trip was a slog with 5400' of gain on a sunny day. On the long side of days for me, especially at elevation. I also let myself get underfed and underwatered and totally bonked with a 1000' left to go. I was able to push through it, but that last 1000' was painful.
Read MoreWeather redirected our weekend plans to ski the Interglacier, off of Steamboat Prow. Yesterday's storm brought what looked like 6 inches of fresh snow, making for a return to warm spring conditions.
We were able to transition just across the moraine from the glacier basin camp and noted that northern and eastern aspects in that vicinity had slid, with slope angles at 35+ degrees. We also observed one possibly skier-triggered avalanche on similar slopes. We felt comfortable with our route and were rewarded with fresh turns at higher elevations where the temps remained colder.
I'd been hearing about Steamboat Prow being a notable scramble, but couldn't find anything in trip reports that indicated anything about it. Turns out that's because coming up the interglacier, at least in these conditions, it's a walk-up ...
The trip was a slog with 5400' of gain on a sunny day. On the long side of days for me, especially at elevation. I also let myself get underfed and underwatered and totally bonked with a 1000' left to go. I was able to push through it, but that last 1000' was painful.
Sun dogs, halos, and fresh snow! Going up to the prow on the Interglacier
Hey, Happy Farther's day dude! You're the greatest.
Kristen & Connor below some tracks below mount Ruth.
This section of skiing was incredibly nice!! We couldn't resist opening it up some :)
It snowed yesterday. Out of the gates several aspects had point released and we witnessed what appeared to be a skier triggered avalnche as well. With our hackles up we progressed up the middle of the moraine and kept asessing. We didn't notice any avy activity on the slopes we were ascending and found great conditions!
Thanks Kristen!
