May 5-6, 2001, Washington Pass

We got to the Blue Lake TH about midnight on Friday where we roughed it that night and the next in KevinG's camper. The weather Saturday was not especially good with on-off visibility, winds, occasional snow, low clouds, etc. We did manage the Birthday Tour, but we had the sense to make two N facing runs before crossing the aptly-named "Cornice of Death" (CoD). These two runs were the best of the day with 3-6 inches of new on a firm crust and decent visibility. Kevin had never done the Birthday Tour, so he did not know it was impossible to skin over the CoD which is what we did following his lead. Surface conditions on Madison Avenue were good, but we got only good brief visibility shots so we cautiously picked our way down (disappointing). The last 100 vf on both sides of Copper Col were icy with most of the party booting it. The descent to the Hairpin offered poor skiing on a breakable crust interspered with avalanche debris in places. Our driver hitched back t! o our vehicles at Blue Lake TH. The very first uphill vehicle contained BrentS who was returning from a 43 mile trail run on the East side! Sunday was a very different day with lovely weather (almost too lovely for avalanche hazard). We played on both sides of the SE arm of Cutthroat where we found good skiing (but no corn). There was evidence of recent cornice failures, but the only avalanche activity we observed was what we triggered (fairly large, shallow surface slides of the new on the old crust on steep slopes). The snow coverage made the descent of the front-side of lower Cutthroat challenging through the rockbands. In another week this part may not be skiable.

The Usual Suspects