| LibRidge: snow conditions were the route Trip Report |
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| LibRidge: snow conditions were the route   | 
| Page Type: Trip Report Location: Washington, United States, North America Lat/Lon: 46.85280°N / 121.759°W Date Climbed/Hiked: Jun 9, 2003 | Page By: d_shorb Created/Edited: Apr 27, 2004 / Nov 22, 2007 Object ID: 169332 Hits: 1781 Loading... Page Score: 86.45% - 2 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
After 2 days of waiting for the rain/snow to leave, our 'two'-person singlewall felt(or smelt) like home. Everyone was going down, a few guided parties and pairs; meantime we were trying to stretch 2.5 days of food into what ended up being four. Late on the second day, the weather lifted long enough for us to see the bottom of the ridge, so we headed out, getting into sleet as we reached the toe. We camped right at the toe, and awoke early day 3 to a blue sky dawn and two inches of fresh. We gained the ridge 150-200 feet up its west side, weaving through two large creavasses to do so. The ascending traverse to Thumb Rock was gorgeous, and firm snow made it straight-forward and quick. And is basically---traverse on snow under rock outcrops, then head up snow when breaks occur in the outcrops allowing passage toward the crest (up and east). It took us 1.5 hrs to get there, with the final snow field dropping away thousand(s) feet, with sick views of Ptarm. Ridge sweet. Huge, HUGE, loud avalanches were coming down the face between the two ridges, completely covering the glacier below, hitting crevasses like rapids in a river. This beautiful traversing section up to Thumb Rock, supposedly becomes rocky later on, and would be scree deviousness I bet, and would've been wierd, avi-potential shlogging in deep snow too.
Reaching Thumb Rock early in the day, we basked in the sun and views as 3 more parties came up (all pairs with single wall tents, freeze-dried food, small packs, and smiles just like ours). The Willis Wall dominates the area, and coming up to the Thumb Rock camp is quite a life altering view. Sick! We melted so much snow, we peed all day long, while others went a little lighter on the fuel. Trip fuel total was 22ounces, using solar melting for a good 1/2 of what we ended up with that day, running out of fuel as each of us had 1 gallon of melted water and dinner/dessert. Slept with that, drinking all night.Sweet climb  mixed ice/snow near the bergschrund  Heading up the lower ridge's west side Images
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Cascade Volcanoes
