Middle Palisade – 4/15/11

Been hanging mostly with skiers lately. I apologize for the lack of snowboarders in these photos. But this one was my first big day of the season, so I thought I’d share it over here……

We got some beta that Middle Palisade was filled in about a week ago. There had been a little wind since then, but we decided to head out there to check it out.

This thing doesn’t hold much snow for very long. The gully isn’t very deep, and it gets stripped by the wind incredibly quickly. So while it has always been high on my list of things to do, the timing of it is very difficult.

The other problem is that you can’t get a view of the coverage until you are just below it. So we left the car at 5:30 with no idea what we would find.

First view of our destination:

Skinning toward the glacier:

Climbing:

Getting closer:

Entering the chute:

Up:

This is why they call him Crow-Bar:

The ridge!:

In case you’ve run out of things to ski around here:

Ski time crux #1:

Ski time:

Jon takes his jump-turns VERY seriously:

Crux #3:

More skiing:

The wind began to kick up from the north:

Getting pelted in the face with uphill spindrift isn’t pleasant:

But we still managed to have fun:

On the safety of the glacier: