January 27, 2012, Wright Mount

Haven€™t seen a report on Wright Mt yet this year, so I thought I€™d submit this one. Marteen and I left the upper Alpi parking lot about 10:30am on a plan €œB€ mission, after being rejected by a blown-out Middle Fork Road in what was to be a mountain bike-ski tour adventure/exploration€¦€¦Following tracks out to Source Lake on what must have been the nicest day to tour I€™ve seen this year, we watched courses diverge towards Pineapple, Chair Peak and Snow Lake. We decided to head towards Wright Mt as I€™ve been close but never topped out on it, and started up probably the most efficient and well-laid track from the basin that I€™ve ever seen there. Thank you to whoever put that in. We crested the divide and descended down to Snow Lake by the more direct and funner(sp) route, and set out across the lake to the NW shore. From there we ascended a series of gullies through increasingly baking snow to the ridge above frozen Gem Lake. A quick 25 min skin up Wright€™s SE shoulder put us on top at 2:30. The summit was a marvelous grandstand to watch groups descending the North side of Chair and climbing Mt Roosevelt. We even saw a pair of silhouettes on top of Kaleetan. After a quick snack, we ripped skins and skated across a wind-affected crust at the summit into knee-deep powder down the shoulder to the Gem Lake ridge. A quick boot across brought us to the run of the day from Gem down to Snow Lake. The trip  back was routine, and put us at the car at 4:00pm. The avy experts certainly had this day right, as nothing moved on us except a few pinwheels and some observed point-releases in the baking sun. If you€™re looking for scenery and fairly non-committing tour on a nice day, I€™d highly recommend this one!