May 1, 2010, Wing Lake, Black Peak area

The weather forecast kept changing for the worse so we were not too motivated to get an early start. Leaving the Rainy Pass Parking area at 10:30 we skinned following someone€™s track up the summer trail line which has some mildly sketchy areas traversing a small cirque below Lake Ann. In hindsight, there is no need to follow this route when there€™s plenty of snow.

We made it up and over Heather Pass, past Lewis Lake, and to Wing Lake in 3hrs €“ in poor lighting as it snowed lightly. Conditions were obviously windy up high on Black Peak and not thinking the weather would change much, we opted to climb toward a summit immediately south of Wing Lake to take advantage of some wind deposits in a shallow gully. Of course, while climbing up there, the sky mostly cleared. After a short run of May powder, we had an excellent ski down through the scattered larch trees to Lewis Lake in more spring like snow. With the cleared weather we could see all the terrain we missed while coming in, including the Lewis Glacier ... which will have to wait for another day.

After traversing up to Heather Pass, we climbed the small summit between Heather and Horsefly Passes for the views to the south and a very aesthetic slope down to Lake Ann. We exited Lake Ann mostly following the outlet creek, which is opening up about halfway down to the highway in a waterfall section.

The snow was stable on all aspects except for south facing between 5,400 and 6,200 ft (don€™t know about higher on that aspect) which was quite rotten with a collapsing wet layer below the several inches of new snow and a crust.

Another fun day off Highway 20; I don€™t get to this part of creation very often. Thanks Chuck and Jason for the great trip.

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