Tenpeak, North Couloir, July 19-20

Last week I intended to scare myself into climbing season by following Sky down the north side of the Triad. But on the way up, as I soaked up the views in every direction, my eyes fell upon this:



I've been wanting to ski Tenpeak's North couloir ever since I saw John Scurlock's beautiful photo of it a few years ago (http://www.pbase.com/nolock/image/57354751). I tried once last year but only managed to climb it's bottom third before retreating with my tail between my legs. Another loose attempt foiled by weather this spring, along with one a few weeks ago, had me chalking up Tenpeak for next season. Until I saw it from the Triad, that is.

Monika needed little convincing, even though it would mean the third weekend in a row she'd be packing a sleeping bag along with her skis. We left the White River Trailhead north of Lake Wenatchee around 1 on Saturday afternoon. Enough time had passed since our trip up Glacier for us to forget the occasional, shall we say "unpleasantness", of the trail.



With the occasional surgical schwack, we made good time and arrived at snow level (approx. 6200') well before dark. We had neither a tent nor bivy sacks, so we wanted to make camp on grass as opposed to snow. The night was spectacular. The near full moon rose blood red over Bandit, leaving a trail of endless stars in it's wake as it made it's way across the nighttime sky. Truly one of the most awe inspiring skies I've ever had the pleasure to witness.

We were moving before six the next morning. The snow had frozen nicely and the skies were crystal clear. I had that pleasant calmness that  comes from knowing conditions are perfect. We crossed onto the Honeycomb Glacier at the col to the west of Tenpeak and had fun skiing on hard snow for over a thousand feet:



We climbed to a small knoll and had an easy traverse to the couloir.  I was a little disappointed that the apron had melted and shorted us some perfectly pitched fall line skiing. It is the middle of July though, so I wasn't too upset. Conditions were excellent- soft but firm down low changing into hardened corn up top. I was happy to have crampons and an ice axe. And hardly any sun cups.



We got to the top just as the first rays of sunlight began to kiss the upper face. It was 9:30. We were psyched. I thought about summiting, but decided against it due to the time it would have required. We wanted to ski as soon as the couloir softened since we had such a long day ahead of us. So we took pictures, ate, napped, took more pictures, and just flat out enjoyed what summer skiing is about. By 10:45 we were getting antsy. Neither Monika nor I wanted to slog back up the Honeycomb in slush.Or depraoch in the dark. So we got ready and dropped in:



The skiing was sensational. The top and steepest bit had softened to the firm side of perfect corn. Not hero snow, but so solid under edge that the exposure added rather than detracted from the experience. And it was GREAT exposure- almost 1500' to the talus below. The parts of the couloir that remained in the shade were less affected by sun so as to be soft enough for fun, short radius turns.






At the bottom we traversed back to col overlooking the Honeycomb and began to think about what neither of us had wanted to think about: the LONG way back to Monika's car. But at least we got to start it off with one (actually two) of my favorite views in the cascades: