Ruby Mountain Mission

Wonderful trip to the top of Ruby. With the road closed to cars, we elected to bike to the TH which was a fun twist, even if a bit unnecessary.

Conditions at the bottom of the mountain were Cascadian (bad), with thick brush and patchy snow coverage. Our group made the approach in Teva's. Bad idea. Post-holing in Teva's feels like stepping into a sandpaper tube.

At ~ 3,300' there enough snow to switch bootpacking. Good idea. We set a great booter (I think) that we heard some groups were able to follow the next day. There was a large avalanche to lookers left of Happy Creek that we saw around ~3,600' that must have slid last week.

At ~3,900' the snow was good enough to start skinning. Best idea. Morale improved rapidly as we started gaining elevation. We followed the regular route alongside Happy Creek all the way to the summit. There were wind loaded slopes, some old wet loose action, and a few steep slopes to pick our way through, but otherwise uneventful.

The recent storm left enough power to play on, making for an epic ski down. The massive views of the range and a seemingly unlimited number of features to ski through makes the top feel more like a playground. It was certainly my favorite summit of the season. If you are willing to suffer a little on the approach, Ruby is definitely in!