Mt.Pilchuck is a scenic little hill on the far western edge of the Cascades. A popular hike in the summertime and a really fun ski in the spring when road access becomes reasonable. We had a huge group of seven skiers, but we all moved fast and racked up two laps off the top on Saturday before the weather got cloudy and rainy.
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Mt.Pilchuck ski
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Mt.Stuart
Cold, windy weather Saturday gave way to perfect (maybe too warm) weather Sunday morning. Around Longs Pass the new snow depth was only a couple inches at most. Climbing up the Cascadian couloir , the snowpack was very solidly frozen, but nearing the top of the couloir there were some hollow sounding wind slabby pockets of around a foot or more of new snow. As we met up with the bootpack from a party climbing the south side we saw a loose snow slide rumble down the upper pitch leading to the false summit. All parties took a bee-line to the south ridge and switch to downhill mode from there...figuring there was enough sun-baked fresh snow still on the upper slope to warrant being conservative.
Skiing the Cascadian was a fine plan B after accessing the summit (and Ulrichs) was a no-go. The snow was pretty good corn with the few spots of windslab being cooked into mush by the time we got to them....no slab activity, just the occasional large cinnamon rolls bounding downhill.
Cornices around Longs Pass proper have not collapsed yet to provide an easy entry/exit to Ingalls Creek valley, but traversing a little further south from the pass you'll find a cornice free path. FYI, we did see evidence on neighboring mountains of cornice fall causing some rather significant slab releases.
As of this weekend, the 5.5 miles to the Esmerelda trailhead were snowcovered except a couple short stretches and one that was long enough to justify taking the skis off...though I imagine by next weekend, those bare patches could be a bit longer. Fortunately the slight downhill grade on the road combined with snowmobile compaction of the snow allowed us to double-pole and skate the the road back out sans skins in just a bit more than an hour.
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