Red Mt -- 6/28
6/15/08
WA Snoqualmie Pass
2075
0
Despite the dismal looking coverage visible from Summit West, I soldiered my way up Commonwealth Basin at the alpine hour of 1:30PM on Saturday. Snow was consolidated, not slushy at all, and hardly sticky, right from the PCT parking lot, which is still under a couple feet of snow. I was able to skin most of the way from the parking lot to the small ridge/moraine that the old PCT follows up toward Red. Bare spots along this ridge forced me into bootpack mode.
The standard ski route down the NW face looked possible from the road but upon close inspection it had quite a few gaps, so I skinned up toward the col between Red and Lundin. Still plenty of snow there, and I found a nice little couloir that led to within a hundred or so vertical feet of the summit.
On the way down, I found nice snow in the chute and basin, then a well filled avalanche gully skiers right of the ridge took me pretty much right to the creek. A couple tricky crossings and skating through the old growth and I was back to the cart. RT 4 hours, mostly thanks to the numerous tree wells to navigate along the trail below Red. Plently of debris on the snow near the falls in Commonweath Creek, but the old growth areas were relatively clean. Hardest part was crossing the river (there is one good log that I missed on the return). I'd say there was still a consistent 3-5 feet of snow in the basin, but once up out of the trees the sunny slopes were bare. the big gully below Lundin was super filled in though and should be skiable for a good while.
Some pics.
NW Couloir on Red.
Snoqualmie and Lundin
The Kendall Chuting Range
The standard ski route down the NW face looked possible from the road but upon close inspection it had quite a few gaps, so I skinned up toward the col between Red and Lundin. Still plenty of snow there, and I found a nice little couloir that led to within a hundred or so vertical feet of the summit.
On the way down, I found nice snow in the chute and basin, then a well filled avalanche gully skiers right of the ridge took me pretty much right to the creek. A couple tricky crossings and skating through the old growth and I was back to the cart. RT 4 hours, mostly thanks to the numerous tree wells to navigate along the trail below Red. Plently of debris on the snow near the falls in Commonweath Creek, but the old growth areas were relatively clean. Hardest part was crossing the river (there is one good log that I missed on the return). I'd say there was still a consistent 3-5 feet of snow in the basin, but once up out of the trees the sunny slopes were bare. the big gully below Lundin was super filled in though and should be skiable for a good while.
Some pics.
NW Couloir on Red.
Snoqualmie and Lundin
The Kendall Chuting Range
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