4th of July Peak Equinox

[steve]

We skinned from Little Kosovo over the Hogback to Upper Sargent Creek and the high alpine behind Bells Flats to 4th of July Peak. The snow was starting to corn up at lower elevations and the Northerly aspects were variable hard pack. It took a little over three hours to ski to the top of the pass where we could enjoy the sun and view, but not for long, the clouds started rolling in so we headed down. It took an hour and 15 min. from the pass back to the truck.

[brooks]

Man it is beautiful up there. Nice photos!

[Philip]

Tuesday, April 29

Adelia and I popped up there today after work (and after a couple of long days of rainy weather!). There are exactly zero flakes of snow remaining below 1000 feet on the way in. You get to hike the full 3+ miles before putting your skis on, unlike in Steve's pics above. But once you are up in the tundra, things look pretty good. There is reasonably thick, uniform, and smooth snow coverage up behind Bells Flats right now. It is rich and luscious mashed potatoes on lower and sunny aspects, and pretty good firm dry snow on shaded slopes. Nothing is really bad, and some of it is classic spring corn. The wet soft stuff is indeed very soft and a bit of work to get around in, but there are huge bowls of untracked corn for the taking. Looks like it will be good up there for the next week with blazing sunshine and calm winds forecast!

Yes, it is a long walk in to get to the snow...



Just above brushline, it's spring skiing!





Headed up the north side of 4th of July Pk. There was firm snow with a dusting of new pow over a firm base on the shaded aspects...



...but we opted to come down the south side of the peak on epic spring mush:



The sun drives everything this time of year and as slopes slid into shadow, things got a little skinned over with crust and consequently got a bit weird to ride.

[steve]

With this great weather I had to check out some of that untracked corn.



4th of July pass


The West face was corned up late in the day. 7:pm Summit run 



Heading back to the pass from the Kizhuyak side.


Looking West from the Eastern summit 

[Philip]

The bowl on the south side of 4th of July Pk that Adelia and I crossed a number of days ago ripped huge in the intervening warm days. It looks like it probably started by loose, wet sloughs at exposed rock faces high on the mountain, but managed to propagate and cause the entire bowl to let go. The slab at the top of the slide looks pretty thin based on the crown face, but got progressively thicker near the bottom, and a huge amount of snow came down. Perhaps there was a weak layer that had persisted, or maybe meltwater was traveling down through the snowpack and released a bond between layers. I don't know if a human would have been heavy enough to trigger this slide, but being in the wrong place at the wrong time when a natural slide occurs has just as bad of an outcome. Just because a slope has survived all the rain a week ago and now a few days of baking sun doesn't mean it won't slide tomorrow. Keep it mellow, folks.

[steve]

Camping May 4th, 5th. The South and Easterly aspects where sliding with all the sun and heat but the North and Westerly s facing Kizhuyak where Hero Corn.

[steve]

4TH of july and 3300. are still loaded and corning up nicely in the after noon . Adding some glider wax on the lower angel runs is a help. but all and all Pretty dang good behind the Flats. Still a lot of 1300 ft. lines to ski for a few more weeks. Sunscreen and glider wax recommended.

[steve]

Here are some of Paul Forwards Photos of Saturdays trip w DJ

[Philip]

Lovely. Nice job on the exposure.

[brooks]

A quick trip yesterday out to 4th of July Peak

[adelia]

Nice video, Brooks! Glad to see you guys got to enjoy the beautiful weather that way. I hope all appendages are happy and healthy

[steve]

Sharon and I did some trail maintenance on the upper trail and then hiked to the pass. The trail is in great shape, very easy hiking. There is still snow on the upper mountain and approach. The snow has a firm base with slushy corn on top and still over 1000 foot runs.

We did see a large bear with a wounded front leg, it was sad to see such a large animal limping to get away from us.

[steve]

Sharon, DJ, Paul F. and I hiked into 4th of July peak on Saturday. The runs are still over 1000 ft. long and should be good for the next few weeks.