Skiing Through the Woods Map of Coleman Glacier Ski Route Heliotrope Ridge Panorama Skiiing Towards the Summit Skiiing Up Past the Spires Baker Summit Panorama Coleman Glacier Panorama Solar Halo The Upper Coleman Glacier View from Coleman-Deming Saddle Summit View of Puget Sound The Summit Dome and Grant Peak Skiing the Roman Wall Skiing Down Toward Colfax Peak

The snow remained fine as we skied toward the saddle, visible here below with Colfax Peak beyond. However, as we descended the Coleman Glacier below the saddle, the snow turned to deep, heavy mush and the temperatures mysteriously soared. Later that evening I found out that the lowlands had experienced unexpected record high temperatures of 85-95 degrees that day. But at the time we couldn't figure out how it had suddenly gotten so hot, as we struggled through the muck, trudging along the long traverse back to Heliotrope Ridge and skiing the short pitch down to our camp. By then I was utterly exhausted, but a brief nap and Alex's gourmet grilled-cheese sandwiches (made on the stove in a non-stick pot) rejuvenated me. Below our camp, the snow in the bowl was surprisingly much better than above on the Coleman and we had a quick ski back to the road. There had been less new snowfall down low the previous week, so there was less soft mush down low than on the upper glacier. Despite the sudden heat, we saw no signs of new avalanching, and set off only tiny sluffs ourselves in the bowl. A quick hike down the last portion of the rapidly melting out road returned us to the car. As we drove back to Seattle, a few big raindrops started hitting the windshield, closing the door on a memorable trip and making us doubly thankful for our decision to start the trip Friday evening.