[Stefan-K]

I'm going to keep this brief since Andrew has an excellent, and erudite, TR up over at TAY - This trip was not only fun but educational, expanding, for one, my range of mountain nomenclature to include "sastrugified". We were thinking it was of italian origin but apparently it's from the russian 'zastruga' and refers to"a long wavelike ridge of snow formed by the wind." There were plenty. Also, much like the Gerdine Glacier upon which we skied but which remains as of yet undocumented on maps, sastrugify also refers to the practice of combining a frozen entrée with one prepared al dente. We put this definition to test on our last night out mixing pasta (frozen) with buckwheat (al dente) for a surprisingly delicious meal. OK OK, so food was getting scarce... I won't further bore you with culinary details, here's some pics - Friday afternoon we hoofed it (pack animals we were, literally) up the North Sauk (wow, beautiful old growth trees!) to the Mackinaw Shelter (5.4 miles)

Mackinaw Shelter camp fire

Mackinaw Shelter camp

Next morning off to a lazy start (early, i.e. more solid snow would have been better)

putting on crampons

you can see our tracks 1000 feet below crossing the slide path debris

pano on ridge between Red Pass and White Mountain; the distance to Glacier Peak still considerable

continue on ridge or drop-in here?

snow camp and stars

Next day (tea every morning) -

across the White Chuck Glacier flats

skinning up along the Gerdine Glacier, pt. 7739 behind

beyond wind scoured topographies: Monte Cristo Peaks, Sloan, Olympics

water scarce; snow plenty - Andrew takes advantage

pano looking SE from top of Gerdine Glacier where it meets the Cool Glacier around 9100 ft. On the horizon: Enchantments, Stuart, Daniels, Hinman, Summit Chief & Overcoat, and that big one down South...

tubed beneath a frozen wave, a view up Dome Peak-wards

snow melting water and snack time

Andrew skis

Scott skis

GlacierPeak-022110_11.jpg

bye

heading back to camp

de-skinning

Andrew watches the sun set on Mt. Baker outside our shelter

and back out on Monday -

Glacier Peak

heading out

back up and over the ridge

Andrew with Mt. Baker behind the ski

corn side down, Scott and Andrew

back in the woods

Very very beautiful area!

[RokIzGud]

Right on, guys! That sounds really fun in the winter. Cant wait to do it in the summer...

[iron]

sweet

[Quark]

Marry me, Stefan-K!

[Hulksmash]

........... sans the marriage proposal

[raising3hikers]

That's pretty cool to be that far out in the wilderness in February Thanks for the TR

[Magellan]

Gorgeous! Good for you guys getting out so deep. Any reason you did not top out?

[TrailPair]

We met a member of your party at the North Sauk trail head as we were headed for Painted Mountain....at least he said he was going to ski Glacier Peak....didn't get his name, but he said the rest of the group were already on their way. Ya'll had a great time!

[Tom_Sjolseth]

Sweet, I thought I may have seen tracks from Sloan Peak, but wasn't sure. Ambitious objective for sure!

[Stefan-K]

[Quark]

A few of us are doing the Sitkum Rt this year. Such a beautiful mountain.

[mtn.climber]

Q, Doing the Sitkum route? What trailhead are you entering from. Isn't that the trail that's still closed from floods?

[Bigfoot Jim]

I think we were given a 'free' extention to wilderness when the roads washed out. We should rejoice!

[Highwalker's Daughter]

Wonderful photos - such incredible beauty - great trip - even though you didn't make it, it still looks fabulous

[Quark]