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| Great skiing on Mill Point. |
4/2. I set out on a blustery spring day with high hopes that the third try would be the charm. Approach shoes ended up being the right choice, because I walked all the way in, prevailed in the re-gen battle, and climbed well into the Mill 2/3 basin before transitioning to skis. The first run was down a nice ramp at the toe of the North Mill 3 buttress, which was an excellent addition to the day. During the climb to Mill 3, the steep short crux pitch directly below the upper hanging larch ramp ended up being surprisingly stout, but I was able to surmount it. The upper peak was mellow and delightful, and I was able to pass the crux pitch in the trees about 10 feet skier's left on the descent.
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| Ramp below Mill 3. |
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| The surprisingly vexing pitch on Mill 3 which I climbed just right of the ice bulge and skied in the trees climber's right. |
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| Up and up to the summit of Mill 2. |
Despite heavy flurries, I felt confident enough in stability and conditions to head to the East face (Alaska face) of Mill 2. Dust on crust skinning wasn't really happening, so I booted almost the entire climb up the Northwest gully one grinding step at a time to access the Alaska face. To my surprise, the East face was a mess from recent wet slides, but while my skiing was not fluid, I was still able to get down it safely. The climb to Mill 1 was accomplished with a lot of booting up slippery dust on crust. By this point in the day, snow squalls had deposited up to 5" of fresh snow, and I was treated to smooth powder in the Southeast bowl of Mill 1. What a treat! Snow petered out just below the terminus of the bowl, so I terminated the run slightly early and huffed it up and out to the East shoulder of Mill 1. The exist ski was great, and snow line was not too high for early April. I really enjoyed the tenor of the day slowly but methodically stitching technical terrain together, with mixed weather and every type of snow imaginable, alone in my thoughts.
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| Unfriendly conditions on the Alaska face of Mill 2. |
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| Mill point in great condition. |
Thoughts It was nice to get this one done. I think that the thrashy approach and steep step on Mill 3 will keep a Mill 3 to 1 link up from ever being popular, it is still a worthwhile outing, and skiing the lower Northeast face of Mill 2 from about 400 feet below the summit (rather than the Alaska face) would eliminate the one truly difficult ski objective. A more realistic and perhaps logical tour would be to climb Mill 2 from Mill creek, ski a few runs, the use Mill 1 as an exit run to avoid doing the bushwack twice.
Other 2022 Mill tours
3/16. During the first climb up the narrow basin just West of Mill 3, we observed one unsettling collapse, and were noted multiple signs of instability in the new snow. As a result, we abandoned our original plan, found a safe way over into the Hauff lake basin, and took a few yo yo laps in safe, undulating terrain to get to 10k. It was a weird day, and definitely a let down, but I was appreciative of Jeffrey's avalanche communication, and I am glad we didn't forge ahead in the face of uncertainty.
2/26
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| Alaska face of Mill 2. About as good as it gets. |
Nolan and I had a flawless run on the Alaska face of Mill 2 with about 20 cm of stable settled powder. What a treat! The rest of the day was kind of weird. We skied the Northwest gully from about 200 feet below the top (to avoid the steep upper slab), then turned around at the base of Mill 3 due to stability concerns. We wrapped the day up by skiing interesting re-frozen junk in the skier's right of a pair of nice little gullies in the Mill 2/3 basin before a smooth (by Mill creek standards) exit. Great day.
