[Opus]

Working the snow out of my system. With a forecast of clear skies, warm temps, and a new moon I knew I wanted to camp somewhere high. And when that happens I usually look up a trip report from Matt. In this case I opted to duplicate his and Cartman's trip to the area around Coleman Pinnacle. It was from February of a low snow year ... close enough, right? Trail conditions note. The road is currently being plowed to Artist Point. I parked at Heather Meadows and worked my way up, partly on snow, partly on the road. The deep canyons created by the plowing prevent easily cutting the road swithbacks. From there on the Ptarmigan Ridge trail past Table Mountain is still completely under snow. The traverse out of Artist wasn't bad but make sure you have good snow travel skills and are comfortable with long distances on snow. The snow was quite soft but manageable. I worked my way more or less following the trail route out towards Coleman Pinnacle. Where the trail hooks around the south side of the point I went up and over the lower summit. This turned out to be a good decision. The south side of the ridge is quite high angle snow and thinning quickly. This trip is probably good for the near future, but will be much easier in a month when the trails melt. I continued over the ridge and camped on Lasiocarpa Ridge. After dropping camp I found a meltwater stream about 200ft down the slope and walked out to the east summit of the Portals. Great views of Baker from up here! When the wind changed direction I could really smell the sulfur from the volcano. I passed two skiers setup camp on a rock island, contemplating a summit bid despite the heat, and then returned to my camp. Spent the rest of the day lounging under some small trees in whatever shade I could gather. Then a nice distant sunset, a great star show, and a surprise northern lights appearance! These long days are fantastic. The flip side is a short night, especially when you wake up in the middle and spend some time shooting star photos. Sunrise came far too quickly and brought the heat fast. I opted to drop straight off the ridge, enjoying the heavy snow cover for cross-country travel, and returned through the basin. Good snow cover overall but be very careful glissading off the ridge. About halfway down I spotted a big void in the snow, stopped, reset, and continued. A big reason I'm a slow cautious slider. Back below Table Mountain I traversed over to Iceberg Lake and returned that way. Iceberg is still totally frozen. Hayes Lake is beginning to melt, though neither have thawed campsites yet. Both will also require good snow travel skills to reach. The slopes getting past Mazama Dome and down to the lakes are fairly steep. I had a nice glissade back into the valley, then a soupy walk back to my car. Went through a whole tube of sunscreen and still came back fairly pink!

[mbravenboer]

Wow, impressive photos! Looks like you had a great time. Matt is a similar source of inspiration for me . I also used their report as inspiration, although I did a much simpler version: https://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8020523 (You probably have a couple of typos in the date)

[Opus]

[Nancyann]

Absolutely spectacular! The photo of the light in the tent and the northern lights in the background has me mesmerized!

[olderthanIusedtobe]

Love that hike. Beautiful area.