mallorie estenson

I have 9 minutes remaining on my lunch break so this one is going to be a quick and dirty Mountain Yelp Review. In sum: it was awesome.

I didn’t run my GPS watch on the way in because I wanted to feel absolutely zero pressure to move fast, take breaks, impress anyone, etc. All I wanted to do was drag my heavy skis out to a beautiful remote place and enjoy the ride.

I opted for the camp at 7200′ and was glad that I did. This was a 3-day hiatus from crazy COVID world; a breakup; and other shenanigans. It was a reprieve.

Day one, I walked. I ate. I read a few pages in my book. And then I took 3 naps and slept through the night. It was lovely.

Day two, I woke up in a cloud. I referenced Martin Volken’s beta and ended up walking all by my lonesome up the Suiattle Glacier to the col between the Disappointment Cleaver and Glacier Peak. I spent the majority of the ascent in a cloud and wrapped up in my thoughts. Just as I got to the col, the sun popped, god smiled down upon me and if there were animals on the mountain they would’ve started singing like something out of Snow White.

I topped out just before 12pm after leaving camp around 7:30. I stomped around and matched some rock formations to photos I’d taken beneath the summit block. Clicked into my skis and went for it.

I put the first tracks on the Cool Glacier Headwall. It was steep, maybe just shy of 50 degrees. The corn was just passing perfect and bordering on slush. But I managed to find my exit through the bergshrund and linked up with the rest of the route that I had climbed earlier. I had to transition to get back to camp twice.

As I skied away from the shrund, I couldn’t help but scream for joy since this was one of my most impressive (to myself) ski descents yet. And I was stoked that I pulled it off solo.

TIME IS UP! Go get it. I highly recommend. It was worth the ski carry.