G.O.S 4-19-11

GOS Tuesday April 19 with Phil  and Ian. These fellows may have eighty years experience of big mountain, back country skiin between them. Summit reported 5" snow previous 48 hrs. Left the base late morning in bright sun, fair weather clouds, middle clouds moving in south and west.

Climbed/skied 1st gully lookers left. Some debate on what to call it. #1? Climbing in baselayers and sweatbands to the ridge. There were foot-deep drifts of fresh, just there, and breezy. Lower down, shallow runnels from either rain or sloughing had trapped a little of the white as well. Covered up, quick takeoff. A hundred feet in, cornucopious!

On the steep, every turn touched off a shallow cascade of silver crumble racing downhill. The crumbly, light as it was, was just sublime. It is firnspiegel, german for snow mirror, the thin layer of clear ice that forms with freezing temps above the surface but penetrating solar radiation that melts the snow beneath the ice. The ice acts like greenhouse glass. When it reflects the sun like a crystal it's called glacial fire. <Mountaineering, Freedom of the Hills, "Cycle of Snow", ed. Ronald English> That stuff reminds me of sea foam, or what my father-in-law called meerschaum. To the french, it may be suggestive of a "palmier", a flakey, puff pastry sprinkled with sugar.

One and done as the sun clouded over around 2 PM. Ski trail was full run but for one bridge crossing. One more warm day, you may clicking out halfa dozen times.