The Black Buttes and Deming Glacier Alex Inverted Camp at 5900 ft Skiing Past Seracs Sherman Peak Sherman Crater Panorama Climbing Towards the Summit Crevasses on the Easton Skiing Down the Glacier Deming Glacier Panorama Heading Home

Since the crevasse danger had been minimal and we had scouted the route during our ascent, we decided it would be safer and more fun to ski down unroped. This would avoid rope-management hassles and the possibility of us pulling each other off-balance while skiing. I used self-arrest grips on my ski poles, while Alex duct-taped an ice axe to one of his poles, in case of a fall requiring a sudden stop to avoid falling into an open crevasse. To get smoother snow, we skied down several feet on either side of the boot-beaten climbers' path we had followed on the way up. Several times each of us yelled at the other to stop, just before reaching a crevasse not easily visible from above. In general, the descent was not too difficult, although there were large crevasses all around, even hidden ones roofed by this year's snowpack as shown in this photo.