May 10-11, 2008, Washington Pass

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Driving the North Cascades Highway to ski in the spring is like walking down the cereal isle in the grocery store on those rare occasions when mom let you pick out a sweet cereal.  Which one should I choose?!  This only happens but a couple times a year!  There's an inherent energy about it all that boosts the fun into orbit.

Preston, Liz and I headed north on Friday night for the weekend, not sure what the weather would allow, but hoping for the best.  We scoped out several of the plowed pullouts for camping possibilities, but ended up at Klipchuck campground on the side of the entrance road.  It was drier, warmer and we ran into some friends there whose antics and company around Saturday night's campfire galvanized the weekend into an instant classic.

On Saturday morning we drove back up over the pass, scoping all the lines down to the road.  Lots of large debris on many aspects with pitches greater than ~35 degrees precluded many of our pre-weekend planning ideas.  We finally stopped in front of Cutthroat Peak and Whistler Mountain, and thought one of the couloirs coming off Whistler looked fun and might ski okay.  When we skied up to check it out, the runnels and debris made it an easy decision to go with Plan B.

We traversed the bowls on Whistler's east side, climbing over some big frozen slide debris, and eventually gained the ridge just west of the south summit of Cutthroat Peak.  After lunch, we enjoyed 2" new snow on a firm base on the steep south

The lower angle slopes in the basin below offered fast, fun turns on sort-of corn all the way down to the valley bottom, where the snow on steeper aspects finally turned mushy and was pretty rotten.  For a final run, we climbed up the southern shoulder of Cutthroat.  More fast cruiser turns on these open slopes in slightly improving weather made for great end to a better than expected day.

the final 100 vertical feet to point 6870. 



We enjoyed views to the west towards Frisco Peak, the Lyall Glacier, and short breaks in the clouds to the north.  The visibility was timely and welcome, as it gave give us an opportunity to look at the route out the Lewis Lake drainage.  The map showed some tight contour lines on the north side of Heather Pass, but it looked like there was a small lower angle opening that would go.  Skiing down the ridge from point 6870 to the pass provided beautifully smooth turns on a couple inches of new, wind-affected snow; certainly the best turns of the day.

From the pass, we took a bearing on the slope that looked like it offered the most promise for avoiding the cliffy sections on either side.  I€™m not the best navigator, but I enjoy trying, and on this occasion it worked out pretty well.  Careful skiing brought us to the valley floor with only a bit of billy goat work on some big rocks with monster moats.  A long but easy skin maintaining elevation led us out to the road.  A quick hitch hike back to the car, and we were on our way home, heading back down the