Today I took advantage of the calm before the incoming storm and relatively stable snowpack to check out another ridge on Ferry Peak: Flat Nose.

I followed the left fork of the road up the West side and found snowmobile tracks didn’t extend very far beyond.  Once I hit the lower faces of the ridge things got really wild and felt very remote: I set my own skin track except when a big cat’s tracks were more convenient.

The big cat tracks had a light dusting of snow in them, but I still felt like I was being watched as I ascended.  From the ridge I saw that the cat had been ranging up and down a good chunk of the canyon between Flat Nose and Little Ferry (Long Spring Canyon).

The skinning eventually got too steep for comfort but the snow seemed stable so I continued up to point 8764 and dropped in WSW faces.

The snow was variable with breakable sun crusts on steeper SSW aspects at mid-elevations.  At lower elevations the snow was good on all aspects encountered.  This unusual phenomenon was due to the inversion of the last few very sunny days.

I got great pics of Broken Nose, Roman Nose, and Little Ferry from Flat Nose.  I don’t think I’ll ski Flat Nose very much (at least not accessing it from the base) because the skin up is hairily steep.  Also, I don’t want to mess with that big cat.

One highlight of the day was discovering a cool SW facing shot off of Little Ferry with a big rock wall and grotto.  It looks like a really fun line and the prospect of sliding into a picnic cave mid-descent looks appealing.  The terrain trap canyon below is obviously a concern though.

Terrain traps are all over the place out here, and most good faces on Ferry seem to end in one.  FYI.

Big storm coming.  Hopefully it bonds well.  Despite the cold temps recently, I haven’t encountered any biggish surface hoar on any aspect or elevation.