Hey Eileen, yeah Ian emailed me but I had already planned my Glacier Peak trip. We will definitely have to do another climb together soon. He's really got his eye on that one route, eh?

Oh, Moni. That was like a dagger in the heart of summer. Nothing to do now but.............BRING ON FOOTBALL!

Brian Jenkins wrote:He's really got his eye on that one route, eh?

.... did you just say "eh?"

Apparently, I've been living too close to Canada.

Moni wrote:This from WADOT weather site:

THIS WEATHER PATTERN WILL HAVE THE GREATEST IMPACT ON THE MOUNTAIN
BACKCOUNTRY...AND PEOPLE PLANNING TRIPS THERE SHOULD BE PREPARED FOR
POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS COLD AND WET WEATHER.

THE SNOW LEVEL WILL FALL TO AROUND 6000 FEET BY SUNDAY...AND ONE TO
TWO FEET OF NEW SNOWFALL IS LIKELY ABOVE THE SNOW LEVEL. WINDS OF 25
TO 40 MPH SHOULD BE EXPECTED ON HIGHER EXPOSED RIDGES AND SLOPES...

Guess summer is over.

no, no it wasn't quite over ...just have to know where to look (ok, just have to get lucky I guess)

So Brian, where's that TR?

No TR yet. I actually got out and headed east this weekend where the weather was 69 and sunny in the Strawberry Mountains. The trip back was interesting where I about ran out of gas in Mitchell. Fortunately, we were able to convince a guy to reopen the Pacific Pride pump and let us get enough to get to Prineville although there was a sort-of Deliverance moment in there for a minute where I was going to sacrifice my friend, Jim to the locals. But that would be another trip report.........................

Brian Jenkins wrote:No TR yet. I actually got out and headed east this weekend where the weather was 69 and sunny in the Strawberry Mountains. The trip back was interesting where I about ran out of gas in Mitchell. Fortunately, we were able to convince a guy to reopen the Pacific Pride pump and let us get enough to get to Prineville although there was a sort-of Deliverance moment in there for a minute where I was going to sacrifice my friend, Jim to the locals. But that would be another trip report.........................

I clench up just reading your story!! ...sounds like you headed in the correct direction though (inbreds notwithstanding).

So does anyone know if it actually did snow or were the weatherguessers overzealous again?

Mt. Baker looked beautiful Tuesday evening from my back yard with a fresh covering of new snow. That said, I'm not ready for summer to end just yet.

Brian Jenkins wrote:although there was a sort-of Deliverance moment in there for a minute where I was going to sacrifice my friend, Jim to the locals. But that would be another trip report.........................

Brian - having gotten a preview of that story, I must say that you should definitely write up the report. If it saves just one unexpecting male anoos from a rude surprise, you will have done the climbing community a great service - a GREAT service!

I was on the Muir snow field on Saturday/Sunday. There was about a foot of the fresh stuff between ~7500 to ~9000 but above ~9000 the wind kept the field relatively clean with just the crevassess snowed over.

I summited Ruby Mountain (7408') in the North Cascades on Friday (September 11, 2009). There was no evidence of any new snow. The Wilderness Center in Marblemount said some snow fell as low as 5500' elevation in certain locations the prior weekend, but had already melted out.

But summer is definitely coming to a close...
Perhaps western Washington will mostly skip Fall similarly to how Spring was skipped? It almost seemed like we went from Winter weather patterns to Summer weather patterns... and perhaps we will go from Summer weather patterns to Winter weather patterns? Hmmm... It could get interesting...

Nope, one weekend of cool, rainy fall-like weather does not make a winter!
We've now been back into the good stuff( a friend of mine went out for a few days into Indian Heaven, and said that it was truly Heaven), and whilst we will continue to have some transitional weather, it will all provide much beautiful fall weather for backcountry fun!
C'mon people! Same as always, until proven otherwise.
Wish with all my heart that I could get out there right now. . . Nirvana.