The temperatures at Paradise hovered in the high 70's all day today while Camp Muir fixated in the mid-50's. For the past couple of days it's been VERY warm, and those trends are going to continue. This sort of news is great for sunbathing but not so great for the snowpack. There has been quite a bit of upper-mountain action over the past week. Dan McCann of UT recently ripped the Disappointment Cleaver on tele-boards (see that line in the lower center of this photo? It's his!). And rumor has it, some gnarly NW skiers are headed for the Mowich Face this weekend!
More climbing updates can be found on the Emmons, DC and Ptarmigan Ridge routes. As for the Emmons, there was some interesting action on the Inter Glacier approach, proving that you could be killed while hiking to high camp! In other words, be "heads up" for the possibility of massive rockfall and snowslides. [Ed.: stratovolcanoes are "geologic junkpiles]
In other photographic news, Eric Simonson, with Paul Baugher piloting the airplane, provided the aerial image of the upper DC , Ingraham and Emmons. Climbing ranger Stoney Richards took a number of GREAT route images on the following lines: Gib Ledges and Gib Chute, Ptarmigan Ridge, Mowich Face and South Tahoma Headwall. Check them out in the updated route reports!
