10 miles of hiking • 5000' elevation gain •
meh weather got us again. nice down low generally. then cloudy midway. at lunch counter we were in fog at times but very still..then clear and roasting with solar radiation. higher up we entered the cloud deck. that evening it opened up for a short spell but we'd already turned tail about at pikers peak.
there was a fresh 4-6inches of snow (end of June!!!) but it was on top of a very hard icy layer. This made the skiing a bit nifty...That and a total lack of depth perception and general visibility for the first 1,500ft down. One partner was unable to ski it, the other removed skis for about 600ft of it, though i managed quite well. we all skiied once we got lower beyond the clouds (LC and down). Going off the lip of the crescent glacier was pretty damn choice.
this entire approach area (cold springs) and more has burned now...crazy
