Quick report
We skied from Ruth to Icy to Shuksan over the weekend, exiting via the White Salmon Glacier, and had an amazing three days out. We were able to drive to within 1/2 a mile of the summer Hannegan Pass TH and ski essentially all the way, with a few tasteful dirt-skinning shenanigans. Snow and weather conditions were variable. It was generally quite a bit less sunny than the NWAC Weather Forecast predicted, with Saturday afternoon fairly overcast, Sunday mostly sunny, and Monday a complete whiteout before we dropped below the clouds below the White Salmon. Other than the whiteout, strong winds were our biggest challenge in the alpine, especially when on summits and ridgelines. We saw a very stable snowpack, with no signs of instability except a few very very small bits of wind slab reactivity on the leeward sides of ridges. Snow conditions were quite variable based on aspect and elevation. Below ~5,000 feet, the snow was wet and soggy, firm in the mornings before softening. Up high, snow was mostly wind-board, with some areas of breakable crust, and refrozen stuff on southern aspects that even turned to corn in a few spots with the right timing. We also found a few pockets of powder in the Nooksack Cirque. The Nooksack Headwall to gain the Crystal Glacier was in great shape and no problem - the top is currently just ~150 feet of ~50 degree snow. Boot crampons were nice, but we did not opt to use our rope. The Shuksan summit pyramid is also in good shape, although we left our skis ~200 feet below the summit. Easy but exposed steep snow to boot, then ~20 vertical feet of rime ice to gain the summit. Crampons and an axe mandatory. Again, we didn't rope up, but a fall here would be bad. Navigating down Hells Highway, across the Upper Curtis, and out Winnie's Slide in strong winds and a whiteout Monday morning was spooky and unpleasant, and unfortunately for us, the entire White Salmon was incredibly heavy snow, making for tiring skiing kicking off huge pinwheels. The climb back to the ski area is a straightforward booter.