August 13, 2011, Chair Peak area

Headed up to Chair Peak today to see what I could find.  Surprisingly, I was the only person I saw with skis... My route selection pretty much all day left something to be desired, but it was "fun" to spice it up with some vertical schwacking on the way up and (!) the way down, maybe I'm a slow learner.  Definitely could have had much more ski time with a trip down to Rainier, even with the extra 3 hours in the car, but it was fun to get in some decent skiing at the pass in mid-August.

It's getting thin and broken up pretty quick, but I managed to squeeze a good run out of the high basin on the Source Lake side and a quick run down the mellow upper slopes of the north face.  That area is getting pretty broken up, so it'd be tough to get much of a run out of it. 


Chair Peak basin coverage - going quick


North face coverage - not much for a continuous run

Good views of Snow Lake mid-melt from the top of the cliffs though:



Met TAYer cumulus on his way down from Chair (nice to meet you!), but other than that I didn't see anyone outside of the Snow Lake trail area, which was very busy.

Edit to add - I found an shovel, three snow stakes and an aluminum water bottle out there today.  I'm pretty sure that the shovel and stakes were from the same people that left a bunch of plastic bags, cans and bottles (hauled those out too) so the finders fee on those is $100.  I don't think the water bottle was related, so if you can ID it let me know (it's a pretty distinct bottle).