Home > Trip Reports > May 9, 2004, S. Ingalls Pk. and Fortune Mtn.

May 9, 2004, S. Ingalls Pk. and Fortune Mtn.

5/9/04
WA Cascades East Slopes Central
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Posted by John Morrow on 5/9/04 6:13am
Larry R., Stan S., Erik S., and I headed up N.Fk. Teanaway road to the end at the Esmerelda Basin TH in 2WD vehicles, no problem.  We hiked to 5000 ft. and then skinned to Ingalls Pass.  Here Larry left us for slopes on Fortune Mtn.  The rest of us went up to the S.Ingalls/N.Ingalls notch on firm snow.  From the notch it was up the short, but frozen and steep NW slope, to gentler north slopes, to the summit.  On the descent we didn't want to ski the frozen 40+ degree slope so we entered the East bowl at a steep corniced entrance.  After that it was a mostly firm but occassionally mushy run down into Headlight Basin.
Then we skinned up the NE slope of Fortune Peak to its' top, meeting Pico C. and his crew, and Nick and a friend of his.  Larry enjoyed the sun near the top after a short run into Headlight Basin.  Then the herd headed down the big SE bowl of Fortune (visible from I-90) on mostly real nice corn with occassional glopiness.  We had to take skis off at about 5200 feet.  A great Spring day.  The bowls look like they have enough snow for a while but the hiking approach may go up to 5500 feet by next weekend.  It was great to see the road opened all the way as we expected a bit of road hiking.
Nice, informative report John as all your trip reports are.  Thanks for posting.  How did Stuart look?  Still enough snow to ski the south side (eg Cascadian Couloir)?

Believe it or not , I still get confused at what couloirs are what.  But I think I was looking at the right one.  It seems to me to be melting out considerably on the sides with a bit of moating going on down the lengths.  It has melted out short of the valley bottom by about 500 vertical feet.  If it is the right one, it is still solid snow to where it twists up and right to join the false summit snowfield, just below the false summit.  That ought to tell if I am calling the correct couloir the Cascadian.  Hope it helps.
From our vantage, we could'nt see the Variation 1 ski off the false summit as described by Burgdorfer, but I think south sides are really iffy, this late, this year.

Cascadian is pretty well all melted out below about 7500'.  I was there this weekend and have a picture from Ingalls Creek looking up at it.  Email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you want me to send you the pic.



Here is a photo from May 15.  Just South and East of Long's Pass.



This is my first try at posting a picture here.  I was hoping to have a picture of Esmerelda but apparently I turned in the wrong roll?  

Reply to this TR

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may-9-2004-s-ingalls-pk-and-fortune-mtn
John Morrow
2004-05-09 13:13:25