July 7, 2002, Sunrise, Sourdough+Burroughs Chutes

Pete and I met 7 others at Sunrise for a day of skiing easy access north-facing chutes. Rainier's summit kept a cloud cap all day, and there were a few rain showers in the morning, but the day was otherwise dry and the sun's warmth came through enough to soften the snow nicely. Our group grew by one as we were joined by Dave from Lopez Island at the bottom of the first run. We all did 3 short chute runs from the ridge above Sunrise (fairly smooth where steep), then Pete, Dave and I hiked the trail out over 1st Burroughs and partly up 2nd to the top of a nice run which dropped into Berkeley Park. Some of the group had skied this steep, 800' run the day before and said it should be nice, and it was. Smoothest snow of the day, softened just right, straight down the fall line with just one rock to avoid in a narrow part about half way down. This was the first skiable north-facing chute off 2nd Burroughs, but there were at least a couple more father along to the west. We hiked back to Frozen Lake saddle, then climbed a few hundred feet up 1st Burroughs to get in one more run, which took us back to within 3/4 mile of the parking lot. On the drive back, it started raining near the Park boundary and continued the entire way back to Seattle, where it had apparently been raining most of the day.

There are photos from this trip here.

Charles