Quick report
Went out to Broken Top on Thurs 5/1, which was the hottest day last week. Since it was so hot I figured the N face might soften up enough, so went to check it out. Cascade Lakes plowing was in full effect in the AM, it's pretty much down to bare pavement now (5/6). Previous times I've done the N face I've traversed around under it and climbed it, which is what I recommend since you get a first hand view of the route and snow conditions. Since I knew the route and had beta that it was in, this time I tried approaching it from the back, which I don't really recommend since you're dropping it blind. Climbed up 11 o'clock, which was pretty soft as I started climbing it right around its namesake time, but not too bad. Still pretty smooth in there. At the top, I figured it would be a short traverse around the top of the west face to the top of the N face... which it was, but it was SKETCHY traversing over super frozen/steep/exposed snow facing W/NW that hadn't softened at all. W face looks good. Got to N face and it was looking really smooth. Let it cook a little more and while I was waiting a piece of cornice broke off and bounced all the way down the face and over the cliffs. 😱 Dropped in around 2:30. Even that late on a super hot day, it still ended up being pretty firm and requiring full focus to not lose an edge, since it's all above cliffs and you have to hit only exit chute which you can't see from above. It was nicely filled in and really smooth, but I would have preferred it to be softer (I was on a snowboard). I think I'd give it at least a couple more hot days. Traversed back around to the notch going through to No Name lake, a piece of that huge cornice over the cliffs there had broken off, but there's still a bunch left that will probably come down soon. Still decent coverage out there, not going quite as quickly as some of the more solar aspects on the other side. [On a side note, if anyone was sled accessing BT since 5/1 and happened to find a big block of black plastic with a couple snowboard straps attached to it somewhere between Dutchman and Broken Top parking, I lost the rear part of my ski rack on one side on the way out there. If you found it please ping me at jimw at pobox dot com.]