Swiss Meadows - SME - February 21, 2005
Woolsey Peak || Forbidden Glacier || Swiss Meadows || Symphony - Snow Cap - Allalin || Fang Creek - Moloch || Sentinal - Zwilings - Graham || Moloch - Tumbledown || Picture Essay
Today we are paired up with Rochus who is no less punctual with start-times. 7:45 am rolls around and they're off! This time we start with a ski down to the base of Needle Ice Fall and then start the traverse over to Tumbledown.
Tumbledown's south face where we traverse over to Swiss Meadows is frightfully sun-baked so I'm happy we're there so early. Even so, slides and sluffs are evident but not a factor at this time of the day.
Splitting up to cross an exposed section.
The traverse stays on the north side of Carnes Creek. Skin track references include 1961m 0431541 5680926 and 1972 0478883 6390898. All refs are 11U NAD83. It does not take too long to get to Swiss Meadows - which has awesome alpine meadows and flowers in summer and then over to Ravens' Knoll where we take a break and admire views west to Fronalp (on the left) and Glarona (on the right) Peaks. Ravens Knoll is 2089m 0429937 5681687
Deb with a view to Glarona - which is named after Glarus, a Swiss canton that is Ruedi Beglingers' birthplace.
The views from Fronalp are spectacular both to the west (outside SME's tenure) and to the east - with a view of Durrand Chalet on the lower right of the picture.
and then skins off and we go down! Here goes Sharon...
Mark
Bill on Fronalp
Steve heading right to me determined to get in the camera lens
Carl on the last stretch of this run down to Tumbledown Lake
Sharon again cutting the big mountain turns that only a G4 with Freerides setup will arc
Steve letting his skis run down to Tumbledown Lake - 2051m 0429371 5681678. This is a 420m or 1500 ft run; pretty typical of the skiing in this area.
We then head back up Swiss Meadows to Glarona. Rochus kindly splits the group up slightly so that the less tired members can get a bonus run in from the top of Glarona to a point midway down the hill in the general direction of Tumbledown Lake. This run is only about 800 or so feet. Here is the view of the two laggards resting from Glarona looking down to the slide paths of Carnes Creek; our fresh tracks from Fronalp are to the couple's right..
View looking to the top of Glarona after we devour the top part of the face. Another groups' old tracks are visible to the right of the picture.
After thoroughly mining Glarona's west facing flank we're pretty much done for the day except for a ski-out through trees; here Steve finds out that one should wait for a skier to clear a divot before taking a run at it.
Late afternoon sun makes the last section of slope crusty and the snow "variable"; this face is the bottom flank of Tumbledown continuing into Carnes Creek downriver of the Twin Falls and is what we skied.
Rochus at the top of the last face with his best "We go Down" expression.
Our run down takes us to the base of Elevator - about a 400 m climb back to the chalet at 1547 0431126 5680901. Its all worth the effort though to get appetite for seconds on dessert - nothing like chocolate overload. God bless Kim and all understanding cooks!
Sunset over the south Monashees
Moonrise over Goat Peak.
Did I mention there is a sauna here? Fantastic way to get clean at the end of a nice day; 1940m or 6400 feet of skiing.
Woolsey Peak || Forbidden Glacier || Swiss Meadows || Symphony - Snow Cap - Allalin || Fang Creek - Moloch || Sentinal - Zwilings - Graham || Moloch - Tumbledown || Picture Essay