Feb 20, 2011, Goat Island Peak

We got Mainer's sled out today and I got to take the cold ride, towing up to the White River Campground.  I've been wanting to ski Goat Island Peak for quite a while and with the recent smattering of pow I thought it would be a good day to go up there.



We got totally sandbagged on the beta for crossing the river (thanks for nothing Chris) and after crossing one of the braids we realized that the main flow was going to be nearly impossible to cross (safely).  As we trudged up the river I joked that we could always cross on the Emmons Gl.  So it really wasn't really all that funny when we got to the toe of the Emmons and finally crossed the river.  I was sure our day was going to be spent skiing low-angled pow but then we spied this little gem.



I'd actually stared at that thing multiple times while descending the upper Emmons en route to Camp Muir, but from below it looked impressively steep.  Now that our brains were realigned with a definite mission we dispatched with the tedious trail breaking to the summit.

After checking the photos we took on the approach we found the entrance and dropped in.  The snow was perfect but a little thin and there were many lurking sharks waiting to take a bite.  2/3's of the way down we were forced to down climb about 15 feet of rocks and the old rain crust but the remainder of the line had the best snow conditions.



A rare smile
 

The snow was so good that we had to do one more lap on the wide open chutes to the east.



I've never heard of anyone skiing these lines before, but I'm not super knowledgeable on the history of this zone.  Anyone know of folks skiing here before?

Anyway, here's our line.