TLDR - Successful overnight ski summit of Ruth. Snow is continuous after wrapping around Point 5930. Good for about 1000 ft of skiing, but who knows for how much longer with this heat wave.
7/5 Road has a lot of potholes, but is possible for a normal sedan to get through with very strategic driving. Left trailhead at about 5 pm and arrived to Hannegan camp in a couple hours, and was very glad with the heavy backpack of ski and overnight gear. There are at least 4 tent spots melted out at camp. The yellow jackets were quite abundant and very annoying, but we made it the whole trip without any stings.
7/6 Set out from camp a bit after 8 am, we had originally planned on earlier but got a bit colder the previous night than we had expected. Getting up to Point 5930 was tough, you're basically walking up a very steep, skinny stream and using trees as handholds at some points. This was especially tricky as sometimes the ski tips would hit the ground (this was even harder on the way down). We started skinning when we got to Point 5930 but then had to walk through a section with melted out areas. After that it was easy skinning to the summit. Summit was beautiful, had a clear day and could see Rainier, Glacier Peak, and many others in the 360 degree mountain views. Skiing down we opted to follow our ascent line given the conditions and definite horrible bushwhack. The snow was smooth and fast for about the first 500 feet, then got a little more suncupped and bumpy, and finally was sticky and lurchy at the flat part. Overall very fun! Then it was a long slog down to retrieve our camp gear and make it back to the trailhead.
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