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write up by Becky-
Pete and I spent Saturday doing a delightful loop on Rainier up to Summerland, over Cowlitz Chimneys, and up and over Tamanos.
Left the Frying Pan Creek TH at 8:20 and started hiking up towards Summerland. The nice bridge across Frying Pan Creek is pretty trashed so we had to head quite a way upstream to find a suitable crossing. The crossing was suitable. The thinning snow along the edges was not. One fully submerged and drained ski boot later, we got back on our skis and continued on our way. After we left Summerland, we didn't see anyone else the rest of the day. The long gentle traverse east towards Cowlitz Chimneys held enough snow to just barely squeak through on skins. When we'd skied this traverse back in 2008, the last slope to the Chimneys was bare and we had to scramble up a slope of surprisingly compact scree/rubble...fortunately this time we had a tiny little patch of continuous snow that let us ski right up to the top of the saddle. The entrance to the Cowlitz Chimneys run was predictably blocked by big, saggy cornices, but luckily, up slope on the saddle, we were able to find a non-corniced spot to slide in. We'd carried a rope back in 2008 to rappel the cornice but didn't carry one this time, so we were happy to find a non-jump entrance, or an obstacle big enough that would force us to head back the way we came. The snow was a little mushy and very bumpy from all the cornice-fall, but if you stuck to the margins on skiers left, it skied pretty well.
We skied and booted up continuous snow out of Needle Creek drainage and over towards Owyhigh Lake. We skirted around the bowl in Kotsuck Creek drainage and tried to retain as much vert as possible to assist us with our climb up Tamanos. The entrance to the main chute on the north side of Tamanos looked good, but we couldn’t see past a constriction about 100 feet downslope so we hemmed and hawed for quite a while about whether to go for it. Pete finally decided to slide in for a closer look and was pleased to discover continuous snow all the way down. There are two main constrictions and they are getting narrower, but it should be skiable for a little bit longer. With the exception of some rocks peppering the slope, that chute had the best snow of the day!
We veered right out the bottom of the chute and were able to slide and side step our way straight to the Owyhigh Lake trail where we racked the skis and boots and hiked the remaining few miles back to the road, emerging at 6:20. The trail we came out on put us about .6 miles from our car so Pete graciously offered to jog back to get it while I lounged on a rock, reflecting on a great day.
write up by Becky-
Pete and I spent Saturday doing a delightful loop on Rainier up to Summerland, over Cowlitz Chimneys, and up and over Tamanos.
Left the Frying Pan Creek TH at 8:20 and started hiking up towards Summerland. The nice bridge across Frying Pan Creek is pretty trashed so we had to head quite a way upstream to find a suitable crossing. The crossing was suitable. The thinning snow along the edges was not. One fully submerged and drained ski boot later, we got back on our skis and continued on our way. After we left Summerland, we didn't see anyone else the rest of the day. The long gentle traverse east towards Cowlitz Chimneys held enough snow to just barely squeak through on skins. When we'd skied this traverse back in 2008, the last slope to the Chimneys was bare and we had to scramble up a slope of surprisingly compact scree/rubble...fortunately this time we had a tiny little patch of continuous snow that let us ski right up to the top of the saddle. The entrance to the Cowlitz Chimneys run was predictably blocked by big, saggy cornices, but luckily, up slope on the saddle, we were able to find a non-corniced spot to slide in. We'd carried a rope back in 2008 to rappel the cornice but didn't carry one this time, so we were happy to find a non-jump entrance, or an obstacle big enough that would force us to head back the way we came. The snow was a little mushy and very bumpy from all the cornice-fall, but if you stuck to the margins on skiers left, it skied pretty well.
We skied and booted up continuous snow out of Needle Creek drainage and over towards Owyhigh Lake. We skirted around the bowl in Kotsuck Creek drainage and tried to retain as much vert as possible to assist us with our climb up Tamanos. The entrance to the main chute on the north side of Tamanos looked good, but we couldn’t see past a constriction about 100 feet downslope so we hemmed and hawed for quite a while about whether to go for it. Pete finally decided to slide in for a closer look and was pleased to discover continuous snow all the way down. There are two main constrictions and they are getting narrower, but it should be skiable for a little bit longer. With the exception of some rocks peppering the slope, that chute had the best snow of the day!
We veered right out the bottom of the chute and were able to slide and side step our way straight to the Owyhigh Lake trail where we racked the skis and boots and hiked the remaining few miles back to the road, emerging at 6:20. The trail we came out on put us about .6 miles from our car so Pete graciously offered to jog back to get it while I lounged on a rock, reflecting on a great day.
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