May 1, 2004, Birthday Tour, N. Cascades
5/1/04
WA Cascades East Slopes North
2328
1
As we had planned to do the Birthday Tour the weekend following the opening of the highway, but didn't for the weather, it's been on the brain for a few weeks. Late April reports of fantastic skiing on the route didn't help matters. So when clear weather was forecasted for Saturday, the decision where to ski this weekend was a simple one.
Wanting an early start, we left Seattle Friday night, making the Blue Lake trailhead (5400') by 11:30pm; we were able to bivy in the lot without intervention from the USFS.
Alone on the trail, we were skinning by 6:30am in already warming weather. While the snow was soft in tree cover, it fortunately had cooled enough in the clear night to refreeze on the open slopes. We skinned to the chute above South Early Winters spire (~7350'), then booted up the final 250' to the saddle below Blue Lake Peak. A boot pack runs along the east side of this final slope, though the snow is rotten on this side in the middle of the slope - you may prefer to stray west of the boot pack in this section.
We topped out on the saddle at 8:45 after a leisurely pace up to find we had timed our ascent almost perfectly; the sun had cooked the southeast face to a perfect corn. After a small scramble and a few photos, we took to the slopes. The top 1000' was fantastic skiing, with unvarying 1-2" corn. It was brilliant. The next 400' were softer and a bit trickier, but still great fun.
Rather than ski to the drainage floor, we began an ESE traverse at that brought us to a rest NW of Copper Pass at ~6200. Although it was only 9:45, the sun had already baked the southern aspects considerably, and it was an easy decision to get off of them sooner than later. We bypassed the Copper Pass route, instead aiming for the saddle 1000' above us to the northeast. After climbing half this distance, we realized we had two options for going over this saddle, one to climber's right and one to climber's left. Although previous traffic appeared to have favored the former, its steeper, more exposed traverse led us to choose the latter. It turned out favorably, as the left led to a fun little chute into the northeastern faces:
The skiing on the highway-side of the ridge was enjoyable, albeit somewhat heavy. Rather than skiing all the way to the drainage for the long slog back to the hairpin, we chose a high traverse that kept poling to a minimum. We made the car just after 11:30, which seemed somehow funny. All in all, it was a fantastic day.
The early start definitely played a factor in how great a day it was. Not only did we hit the snow just right, the shuttle from the hairpin to the Blue Lake trailhead revealed ~50 cars in lot where only 4 had been at 6:30. Outside of a few parties within 300 yards of the hairpin, we felt alone and unmolested all morning. Which was nice.
More pics at: http://community.webshots.com/album/139496851guJdvO
Wanting an early start, we left Seattle Friday night, making the Blue Lake trailhead (5400') by 11:30pm; we were able to bivy in the lot without intervention from the USFS.
Alone on the trail, we were skinning by 6:30am in already warming weather. While the snow was soft in tree cover, it fortunately had cooled enough in the clear night to refreeze on the open slopes. We skinned to the chute above South Early Winters spire (~7350'), then booted up the final 250' to the saddle below Blue Lake Peak. A boot pack runs along the east side of this final slope, though the snow is rotten on this side in the middle of the slope - you may prefer to stray west of the boot pack in this section.
We topped out on the saddle at 8:45 after a leisurely pace up to find we had timed our ascent almost perfectly; the sun had cooked the southeast face to a perfect corn. After a small scramble and a few photos, we took to the slopes. The top 1000' was fantastic skiing, with unvarying 1-2" corn. It was brilliant. The next 400' were softer and a bit trickier, but still great fun.
Rather than ski to the drainage floor, we began an ESE traverse at that brought us to a rest NW of Copper Pass at ~6200. Although it was only 9:45, the sun had already baked the southern aspects considerably, and it was an easy decision to get off of them sooner than later. We bypassed the Copper Pass route, instead aiming for the saddle 1000' above us to the northeast. After climbing half this distance, we realized we had two options for going over this saddle, one to climber's right and one to climber's left. Although previous traffic appeared to have favored the former, its steeper, more exposed traverse led us to choose the latter. It turned out favorably, as the left led to a fun little chute into the northeastern faces:
The skiing on the highway-side of the ridge was enjoyable, albeit somewhat heavy. Rather than skiing all the way to the drainage for the long slog back to the hairpin, we chose a high traverse that kept poling to a minimum. We made the car just after 11:30, which seemed somehow funny. All in all, it was a fantastic day.
The early start definitely played a factor in how great a day it was. Not only did we hit the snow just right, the shuttle from the hairpin to the Blue Lake trailhead revealed ~50 cars in lot where only 4 had been at 6:30. Outside of a few parties within 300 yards of the hairpin, we felt alone and unmolested all morning. Which was nice.
More pics at: http://community.webshots.com/album/139496851guJdvO
skiphotomatt and I were also doing the bday tour on saturday. We left the trailhead around 8am, only to find out that the snow didn't really freeze enough overnight for our plans, so we only did the standard tour. The upper 2/3's of the first run was excellent skiing, but after that the snow became extremely heavy and the skiing quality decreased. We found similar snow conditions down from the second col. The upper part of the run wasn't that heavy, but it got heavier as we got further down. There are several rotten spots opening up and I recall matt skiing the shoulder below the second col and falling into a hole while he was skiing.
It has been way too hot out!
joshua
It has been way too hot out!
joshua
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