Home > Trip Reports > July 10, 2004, Sunrise Sourdough Chutes, Rainier

July 10, 2004, Sunrise Sourdough Chutes, Rainier

7/10/04
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
3031
4
Posted by lapaz25 on 7/11/04 1:57am
Our party, consisting of me, Lara, Joedabaker, and his friend, Matt, headed to Sunrise early Sat. morning. We hiked to the top of Sourdough ridge near Dege Peak and were able to find more snow-covered, fun chutes that I had expected! On the north side of the ridge, there are series of chutes, most of which are hour-glass shaped. Snow cover is definitely lessening, but very ski-able, indeed! We hit 5 different chutes, all just a quick jaunt from each other. Sorry, no skinning on these-gotta boot it up for they're too steep (darn, eh?). Probably the most entertaining part of the trip was the fact that we became a famous, international tourist attraction, including cameras, videos, and brief interviews! On our last decent, we had an audience of approx. 20+ folks of asian decent looking on in amazement. It's strange that what seemed so ordinary to us was so unusual to everybody else! Yet, it was even entertaining for us to hear the "oooohs and aaaaaaaahs" and we rapidly decended the perfect corn slope, diappearing over a steep bench only to be seen again returning with the skis on our backs and a nice sweat on our foreheads! Considering it was July, my time was limited, my health was questionable (but held on great), and the fact that we had a really warm spring and summer so far, it was pretty damn good! I'm willing to do long approaches, but having to hike less than a mile in my boots was a nice change. If I can't find skiing in Anchorage next month (see post), I'll be looking for partners August, 6, 7, or 8. Have fun out there!

~Lara
Thanks for posting the report Lara.
We milked out another day in those chutes. It was great to hook up with Silas and You! Very accurate report on the trip. You forgot to mention your new boards. Good job on keeping them clean. I was not as lucky.  >:( Still much fun to be had.
Have fun-good luck in August-
JDB

Went up there today (Thursday). The chutes just east of Antler (where the big wooden sign is) require a downclimb on some of the loosest scree/mud ever. I wouldn't even have bothered, but a group of 10-year-olds dared me. Did the 4 available patches of snow in there, then moved east to the next group of 4 or 5 chutes. Only 2 were top-to-bottom: one of the steeper runs that narrowed to about 3-feet wide after a couple quick turns before opening up; and a very mild, though longer, run further east. Snow was mildly suncupped, and just soft enough to make those suncups easily skiable. All runs were quite short and the snow is going fast. Next season I'll get up there much sooner in the season.

You guys (that includes you, Lara, in a non-gender specific way, of course   :)) certainly milked out a bunch more turns out of Sourdough Ridge after I thought it was long over.  My hat's off to you.  That Joe sure knows where the goods are on that side of the mountain.  I always get a kick out of the "rock star" status we garner from the tourists skiing at Sunrise.  Maybe that's where the MadDog gets her saying "party like a rock star", eh?
Good job, gang.

Yep, he sure knows the area, but Joe has a backyard advantage living so close.  

We did have to jump and side step some sections to conect the snow patches.  Now that I think about it, Joe is luck he only hit one rock on that trip.  Great fun in those chutes, I know I'm going back a bit earlier next year ;D

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july-10-2004-sunrise-sourdough-chutes-rainier
lapaz25
2004-07-11 08:57:35