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With the great weather last weekend it was a good time to go hit Ruth. We got an early start to try and beat the heat, left the trailhead about 7am. We were able to drive all the way to the trailhead even though reports had said you could only drive to within a 1/2 mile. The trail/valley is basically completed melted out. We didn't hit continuous snow until just before Hannegan Pass about 4 miles in. Glad I decided to bring the trail shoes. The snow was quite a bit firmer than we thought it would be so we decided to boot pack for a while until it was easier to skin. We got to the summit around noon to some spectacular views of Baker, Shuksan and the Picket Range. Only one other skier up there but a bunch of climbers who were climbing Icy Peak. The snow on the way down was pretty firm for how warm it was. Photos below. No riding photos unfortunately. I was the only one with a camera so its all scenic shots.

Lots of waterfalls around right now




Maybe with some more snow.


First glimpse of Ruth


Shuksan peaking through


Leann booting up


This is where we started skinning from - Ruth in the distance, Shuksan to the right


Baker peaking through


Ruth


Approaching the summit




Me on the summit - Shuksan / Jagged Ridge in the background


Shuksan, Nooksack Glacier, Jagged Ridge (baker in the distance behind Shuksan)


Icy Peak and Icy Glacier


Whatcom, Challenger and the Pickets in the distance


Leann and I - Shuksan and Baker in the background


A few panoramics

Wow, awesome pics! I've never seen Shuksan from that side before.

The Icy Glacier pics is really neat. Very broken up glacier next to very smooth snow. Interesting contrast.

Yeah, Shuksan looks totally different from each side.

Nice pics. How were the chutes...or did you ride down your route up?

I've heard and seen pics of Ruth in the. These pics did not disappoint!

Looks nice and smooth!

We did not ride the chutes on the lower face as we did not want to end up all the way down in the valley because we didn't want to potentially bushwhack out of there. We came down the face and went skiers right and hit some other "chutes" (if you want to call them that) and hooked back up with the trail out.

I did hit those chutes when I was up there last year in May and they were good and we were able to ride all the way into the valley and skin all the way out.

Wishful thinking on my part.....though...I do like bushwack'in

Great TR JC!!