I think the objective for the day changed at least 4 times before we finally reached a decision. We decided on Mt Ruth about 200 ft from the summit. It seemed like the right choice, for the time.
We left the White River Campground at a casual 9:45, taking the Glacier Basin Trail up to about 5500 ft where we hit continuos snow. Dropped the shoes, took the trail for another 1/4 mi before we cut left, and crossed the creek just past the turn off for the trail up Burroughs Mountain.
From Glacier Basin we headed more or less due south up to the ridge, stopping for lunch at about 7000 ft then following the ridge line up to the top at almost 8700 ft. The snow was soft and offered good traction on a day when the highs were in the low 60s and the wind was nonexistent.
We dropped around 4 and skied the north/northeast face in about 4 in of new snow from a couple days prior that took the form of hot pow. Around 7200 ft the new snow had moved in a wet slide abut 8 ft across making the skiing through the chute less fun through the choke point. Below 6500 ft it got pretty sloppy but still fun for pushing around.
A split back to where we had ditched our hiking boots and then a little bit further before we switched back over and finally hiked out.
I knew we wanted to ski something on Friday but I wasn’t sure where. Mt Ruth provided the answer to that question.