May 18, 2012, Black Peak, N. Cascades Hwy
5/18/12
2687
1
Chuck, Mark, and I enjoyed a trip to Black Peak on a stellar day with mostly excellent corn. However, I did want to pass on condition reports on two things.
With the nearly two weeks of warm and clear weather, we were surprised at the amount of avalanche potential (cornices, deep snow on cliff) that still remained on the north facing wall between Heather Pass and Lewis Lake. This is an exposed traverse (cliffs above and below) that you must pass by twice. This time of year, its hard to do both passes with the snow firm on the same day. Friday remained fairly cool so we had no issues, but theres a lot stuff that will eventually come down.
Sadly (for skiing only), the south side of Black Peak (summit to the col above Wing Lake) is melting out fast. On our climb up we booted on rock about half the route from the col to the summit ridge. To descent, we traversed the summit ridge slightly west to find a chute that had continuous snow. We were able to ski down to the col elevation, but then had to boot bare earth east to get back to the continuous snow heading down to Wing Lake. It wasnt ripper conditions from the summit at 3pm with shallow but energetic wet slides. The snow here wont last long.
With the nearly two weeks of warm and clear weather, we were surprised at the amount of avalanche potential (cornices, deep snow on cliff) that still remained on the north facing wall between Heather Pass and Lewis Lake. This is an exposed traverse (cliffs above and below) that you must pass by twice. This time of year, its hard to do both passes with the snow firm on the same day. Friday remained fairly cool so we had no issues, but theres a lot stuff that will eventually come down.
Sadly (for skiing only), the south side of Black Peak (summit to the col above Wing Lake) is melting out fast. On our climb up we booted on rock about half the route from the col to the summit ridge. To descent, we traversed the summit ridge slightly west to find a chute that had continuous snow. We were able to ski down to the col elevation, but then had to boot bare earth east to get back to the continuous snow heading down to Wing Lake. It wasnt ripper conditions from the summit at 3pm with shallow but energetic wet slides. The snow here wont last long.
From the summit (prob missed you by an hour, we came up the other side), we watched you guys make turns from the S (SE?) shoulder down towards Wing Lake--wondered if portages required on the S side. Your rolling turns looked like fun. We were about to have some kinda fun too on Black--will post pics this eve.
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