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www.turns-all-year.com
| Backcountry skiing images from Iron Peak, North Fork Teanaway River
Turns All Year: Ski Trip Photo Galleries | This is a gallery of Iron Peak skiing photos. Thumbnail images on this page can be clicked to view the full-sized photos, and lead into a slide show sequence for the gallery. The photos are from a backcountry skiing trip to Iron Peak, in the Wenatchee Range, North Fork Teanaway River drainage in the eastern Cascades. A sunny, cold, and windy May day allowed only southerly aspects to soften into beautiful skiing corn snow.
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| | | Iron Peak, North Fork Teanaway River, Washington, May 18, 2003
(Click any photo to view large version)
Hiking the North
Fork Teanaway road | 
Booting with
Fortune Mountain | 
Skinning up | 
Skinning up near
Iron Peak summit | 
Mt. Stuart | 
Skinning down near
Iron Peak summit | 
Andy on S slope | 
Charles on S slope | 
Andy on S slope | 
Andy on S slope | 
Andy on S slope | 
Andy on S slope | 
Skinning for another run | 
Charles on S slope | 
Andy on S slope | 
Andy on S slope | 
Glass pane snow | 
Iron Peak summit ridge | 
Into the trees | 
In the trees | 
Last snow |
Photos by Andy Palunas and Charles Eldridge
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Associated trip report: After getting reports from Saturday trips to Chinook Pass and Bean Creek, Andy and I decided to try for corn and so drove the NF Teanaway to blocking snow (~3/4 mile short of DeRoux CG). As we were packing up, John_M and friends showed up, intending a direct route up Iron Peak. Andy and I decided to head up the road, leaving the decision between Iron and Fortune until the Iron Peak trailhead. Part way up the road walk we met two climbers who had been intending a 1 day climb of Mt. Stuart. They had encountered cold and fierce winds at Longs Pass, and completely frozen slopes everywhere, and had turned around there. We decided to go for Iron's lower elevation and choices of S-facing slopes, which we hoped would soften in the abundant sunshine.
Skiable snow started at ~4400', solidly frozen overnight but already softening in sunny spots. We followed the trail route to about 5200', then skinned more steeply SE to gain an open ridge, where we ran into John and his party. We took the ridge to the Iron Peak summit ridge, where a gusty cold wind did not encourage lingering, and the solidly frozen N slopes did not encourage skiing. We skinned over the summit and continued S on the ridge to a S facing bowl, where we skied down to ~5300'. The snow was true corn, up to 1" soft solid base, fast and never grabby.
After lunch in the sun, we skinned back up largely in cloud shade, which was causing the formation of what I think of as "glass pane" snow - a thin and delicate surface layer of clear ice over the still soft and moist corn layer - which I have usually found to provide nice skiing. A second run to the bottom of the bowl met or exceeded our expectations, and turns were accompanied by the musical cascading of the shattered glass layer around us. We skinned back up to the top of Iron, where we saw the tracks of John's group, then began the run back down our ascent route. A few icy spots in tree shade at the top, but once we started down all was great, never getting mushy even as the snowpack began to run out.
Charles |
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