Near the bottom of Big Butch Wash, looking up. Just a boulder field here:
After a bit of climbing the snow fields began, and the canyon acquired a nice stream:
Sunlit side is dry, shaded side holds snow:
Just below 7400ft Big Butch Wash looks like this, looking up:
But I didn't go that way. I put on the spikes, and took a right turn into a snow-covered gully:
This is a steep, direct and very fast route straight to the top of Thunder mountain. At 7800ft I crossed into the ski area
And soon I was at the top.
Then I descended between the ski runs down to the Notch, and up to the Devil's Backbone. Here I found a crucial piece of mountaineering equipment that I forgot to pack with me:
That side of the ski area is dry, and closed to skiers for the season. Past the lift, the backbone has quite a bit of snow. The top has lots of snow too, but the middle section is dry:
It's going to be melted out completely soon. The peak is nice. No wind at all today:
Then I descended the bowl. Took the chute nearest to the peak. The steep upper section was uncomfortable; had to descent backwards, slowly. The snow is all really soft, and traction is good. Below the really steep top of the chute I was mostly doing a foot shuffle through the soft snow, trying to slide down. Worked decently well: I only ate it and had to self-arrest once. It's all so soft, I probably wouldn't have slid very far even without the self-arrest. There are many dry patches, but I had a continuous snow line all the way down to the hut:
Bowl looks like this from below:
My chute is conveniently obscured by the tree on the right. And then I finished the route, after doing the only "running" of the day. 8.5 miles, ~5000ft gain, 4:12.
First time I ever saw sastrugi and corduroy was on the summit of Baldy.
