Chiwawa Mountain, Lyman glacier

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Usually Becky and I would never consider staying in Seattle for part of a three day weekend, but my favorite band was playing at Bumbershoot on Saturday, so Becky was a good sport and rather than a three day mountain trip, we opted for a Jane's Addiction concert and a two day mountain trip.
We'd hiked in to Chiwawa basin last September, just a few days before our wedding....we thought the scramble route up that side of Chiwawa would be an easy scramble with some nice views.   Some bad bushwacking at treeline (and Becky slipping off a log and slicing her shin open) put an end to that trip.  Fast forward to this year, we thought we'd give Chiwawa a go via the Spider Gap/Lyman glacier route.   A pleasant hike up to Spider Meadows and then a short, steep grind to treeline and over Spider Gap got us to camp by mid-afternoon.
The Lyman glacier looked steep...but it had been skied the week before and we knew that staring straight on at it was making it look steeper than it really was (at least thats what we hoped).
Up early Monday morning we cramponed up the moderately steep slopes, and got to the final slope to the summit ridge.  The last bit of snow was still rock solid, perched above a large crevasse, and our meager crevasse rescue supplies weren't nearly enough gear to start pounding pickets and screws to protect the last bit.
The slope wouldn't be softening for at least a couple hours, so rather than wait around till afternoon and easy conditions, we had a nice break, took in the views, and headed down....skunked again on Chiwawa, but happy we got to check out a really pretty part of the Cascades we hadn't been to yet.

Mt.Baker - Squak glacier climb & ski

Becky and I haven't done a ton of skiing this summer....got in a climb/ski of Mt.Adams last month, but not much else.    With a nice forecast this weekend and no obligations, we figured we'd drag the skis out one more time and play on Mt.Baker.
We left town Friday night with Andy & Mica, and had a comfy parking lot bivy in their Westfalia Vanagon.  Up early Saturday morning and moving up the trail by 6am, we reached continuous snow after about 2 1/2 miles of hiking.
Fortunately there was a light breeze the whole way up the glacier otherwise we'd have been roasting in the sun.   It was warm enough to wear a t-shirt all the way to the top.  A leisurely pace got us to the summit around 2pm and we took a long break, surprisingly having the summit all to ourselves.
The snow was a little sticky, but not too soft and made for pretty good ski conditions for August. We managed to ski down to around 4800ft before putting the running shoes back on and hiking the remaining 1500ft down to the car. A refreshing swim in Baker Lake followed by dinner at the Skagit Brewery made for a great end to our 2012 ski season.   Now to move on to a little backpacking and surfing before the next ski season starts up in a few short months.

 


Mt.Baker climb & ski via the Squak glacier from p alderson on Vimeo.

Mt.Pilchuck ski

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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.

Mt.Stuart

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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.

Spearhead Traverse day trip

Words by Becky:

For years Pete and I have semi-joked about how great it would be to pull off a one-day Spearhead Traverse and then immediately check in to the Fairmont Chateau Whistler to recover. Saturday, we did just that.

We caught the gondola from the base at 8:00am on the dot, but sadly Glacier Express didn’t start spinning until 8:45 and the T-bar til 9:15. We actually skinned from the bottom of the T-bar just to get going, but of course they started it up right as we hit the top. Oh well, what’s an extra 500 feet of climbing?

We exited the ski area and started the Traverse around 9:45. We were not alone – at least a dozen other day trippers were out in front of us, also taking advantage of the perfect weather. The snow on north-facing aspects was light, shin-deep powder – great skiing, if you had the time to stop and take a lap (which we did not)!  “Tomorrow!” we thought.

We made slow, but steady progress, feeling more and more confident as the day went on that we might actually make it out without needing the headlamps. We were heading up the crusty Diavolo Glacier towards Overlord by 3:30. After all the short-ish descents on the Blackcomb side it was nice to get some nice long slides heading back towards Whistler. We found the best turns of the day on the back side of Fissile.

Climbed up and over Cowboy Ridge and started the descent down Singing Pass Trail around 6pm. Holy balls that thing is 7 miles long, but fully snow-covered and pretty much all downhill so we appreciated sliding down it vs. climbing up and over the Musical Bumps. We popped out at the ski area a few minutes past 7pm and made a beeline for Zogs to inhale a bowl of poutine and then on to The Fairmont for hot tubs and beer.

Went back up to the Blackcomb BC on Sunday to get some of the sweet, sweet powdies we saw the day before, but sadly the wind came in hard the night before and was still blowing to beat the band so we settled for a few heavily wind-affected laps on Decker and then headed back to the comfort of the hotel.

April Fools Day freshies

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Late winter powder harvest on Arrowhead Mtn....

Snoqualmie Pass touring

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After what seemed like a long time this winter of short tours, lapping powder, some failed trips due to spooky snowpack, we finally got a weekend with reasonable weather and relatively straightforward snow.
Becky and I got in a nice tour up Mt.Catherine on Saturday...ran a few laps on the better snow up high, then Sunday we headed back up to Snoqualmie Pass with Mica, Andy, and Kirsten to ski the Chair Peak circumnavigation.  
The morning started off sunny and there was good snow from the get-go.   We were worried that the route has gotten all tracked out by skiers on Saturday, but as we climbed through the forest we spotted a uphill track being set by a solo skier...what luck...the guarantee of untracked conditions and only one skier in front of us doing the bulk of the trail breaking.
Up and over Bryant Col and down to Melakwa Lakes in great knee-deep powder, then a long gentle climb to Melakwa Pass and couple great pitches of skiing down to Snow Lake.   Nice to finally get in one of the tours we take for granted most years.