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Post by Philip on Jan 20, 2019 15:54:26 GMT -9
Sunday Jan 20, 2019 Today I hiked up to the summit of Sharatin Mtn from the Red Cloud trail. Today there was not a breath of wind and a robin's-egg-blue sky. Just stunning. The trail up to the brush line was in good shape with some ice in spots, but very decent hiking with just microspikes. The steep side hill where the canyon ends and you break into the alpine was pretty easy to negotiate, but I advise traversing a little above the summer trail and being careful. I put snowshoes on at this point though it wasn't strictly necessary as the upper mountain is absolutely bulletproof, rock hard snow. I mean, I couldn't even stab my ski pole tips in most of the time. As you exit the cirque and climb the little pass that gets you on the summit ridge, that slope is kind of dicey. It is basically textured rime ice right now. I made it up okay with microspikes and a Whippet (self-arresting ski pole), but if I were doing it again I would use full 12-point alpine crampons and an ice ax. The rest of the hike is cake, and super easy walking on completely bomber snow to the summit. The skiing would be absolutely horrific with a few isolated exceptions of some dust on crust, but it was superb walking. The weather is going to change here soon, so the conditions will probably change. Of course... Down below the spruce bench: Nearly to alpine: Up on the summit ridge looking back down into the cirque:
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Post by patrick on Feb 9, 2019 20:16:57 GMT -9
2/9 I went up into the North Bowl on Sharatin today and the skate skiing was superb! Like as good as it ever gets. Too bad the conditions are about to change with snow/rain tonight. I just wish I had tried that bowl earlier. Firm crust and just a little snow on top. You could do parallel turns in XC ski gear. Patrick
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Post by Philip on Mar 10, 2019 17:05:47 GMT -9
Sunday March 10 I headed up Sharatin via the north trail from the end of the road today. It was patchy blue sky with light to moderate SW winds and pretty mild temps. Yesterday's gnarly storm delivered some nice snow to the mountain. The trail up is not icy and you don't hit any snow under the trees, and only a foot or so of snow out in the open areas, until you are pretty high up. It transitions pretty fast from decent hiking to being able to skin around 800' elevation. The gullies and guts of the bowls on the upper mountain have a lovely deposit of wind-packed powder, and even the more open areas are not at all unpleasant. I did not run into any crust or rime until I was basically up on the summit. I toured across the wide north bowl to the saddle looking down on Shelly Lake, and then headed south, climbing up the gut of the north bowl and finally up to the summit. The gut of the north bowl has some really good snow right now. In fact the skiing from on the summit ridge all the way down to where the trail enters the alpine is all pretty good. Watch out for cornice fall coming off the ridge running NE from the summit into the north bowl. Otherwise things seem pretty stable. Tomorrow's weather (Monday) is calling for some westerly winds so it may be a little breezy up there, but you will be rewarded with some sun and decent conditions. The road over the pass has some rutted, mushy snow but no big deal in 4wd. Almost out of the trees and the snow is getting deep: In the alpine and things are looking good: Looking down on a frozen Shelly Lake: Textured styrofoam snow on the summit soon transitioned into some really nice wind-packed powder in the bowl: I was testing out a new A/T setup and even though I haven't skied in about 30 years, even I could make some turns on this stuff:
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Post by steve on Apr 17, 2019 17:25:09 GMT -9
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