Home > Trip Reports > May 26, 2012, Plummer Denman Plummer

May 26, 2012, Plummer Denman Plummer

5/26/12
3532
6
Posted by telemack on 5/27/12 3:43am
Jason Oppler and I went for some ski summits in the Tatoosh.  The only folks we saw away from the road were 3 guys on their first tour there---good to chat with you; you covered some good ground.
Plummer was first.  We had lunch on top while watching great cloud displays and buildings thunderheads, but we seemed to stay under a pressure ridge flanked by marching clouds.  We had peekaboo sun all day.  We had firm then soft turns off the top. 
Skis went on the packs for a short boot up Denman.  We changed our plan to reverse our route when Jason found a couloir ("Denman's Demon"  ::)) on the E side of Denman that went continuous through 2 cliff bands. 
We got about 10 minutes of graupel in the flats under Pinnacle-Plummer Saddle, then it cleared and we skinned to the Denman-Plummer gap to get into a nice, short N-facing couloir (the "Plummer's Helper"  :)).  We summited Plummer again for more verrtical.  Skiing Plummer's Helper I got knocked down by a big pinwheel I couldn't quite stay ahead of. 
Shoulda reversed our route in under Pinnacle with a bit of a climb rather than dropping lower for 200 feet more turns and a woods-thrash uphill traverse.  Oh well.   We skied through the snow bank and touched the car with skis still on. 
Not much corn yet, but the turns were great if you don't mind tele-ing wet-slide debris, mush, and sluffs.  Really fun day. 

TATOOSH IN MAY
Drive skin boot
Summit turn boot
Turn cornice chute
Gawk graupel hoot
Sweat summit mush
Chute slide push
Traverse drive night
Skied just right
Sounds like the name of a law firm!

Hey Telemack and Jason, thanks for the tips on what to check out up there, we had a great time visiting the saddles and scoping out some future trips.

That line through "Denman's Demon" was pretty bold.  Looking up at you guys from the bowl, we weren't sure it was going to go.  Nice job getting after it.

We were hoping you guys decided to take the higher route back to the car as opposed to following our track down low.  Those cliffs and the creek are bad news, so we turned back and booted back up the chute to the flats.  Definitely wasn't the skin-free kick back to the car we were envisioning!


-T

author=telemack link=topic=24919.msg105281#msg105281 date=1338144192]
..  We summited Plummer again for more verrtical.  Skiing Plummer's Helper I got knocked down by a big pinwheel I couldn't quite stay ahead of. 
...
TATOOSH IN MAY
Drive skin boot
Summit turn boot
Turn cornice chute
Gawk graupel hoot
Sweat summit mush
Chute slide push
Traverse drive night
Skied just right



skiing Hogback on a sunny day last Spring, my friend, Yakima Jack, dropped a coulie and set off a pinwheel that chased him for a couple hundred of vertical.  I watched as he did a slalom dance with it as it grew to maybe 5+ ft in diameter - it slapped him on his calves and butt a couple times, cramping his style, but never quite trashing him, before it broke up on the runout - a hoot to watch, even if makes you take measure of stability..

author=T. Eastman link=topic=24919.msg105284#msg105284 date=1338150482]
Sounds like the name of a law firm!


Agreed,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, one of the ambulance chasing variety  ;)

Gary

Very nice.  I'm glad to see you found the sun.  I was on Ellinor teaching some young men some mountaineering skills yesterday and we had light rain down low and large flakes of snow on the mountain.  The skiing was actually quite fun.  I'm glad the clouds sheltered the already warm snow from the sun.  It sounds like the Tatoosh range was a smart choice.

It was a great day and good times had by all.  Sorry for the late picture post, I forgot my camera in Mack's car!

Clearly there will be snow for a little while in the Tatoosh...



Mack dropping off the west side of Plummer on our way over to Denman



Mack booting up Denman



Me cautiously dropping into "Denman's Demon" preferring to stay upright instead of riding a river of slush down



Feeling a little more confident now



Sorry, but Mack bribed me not to post the video of him getting smacked by the 4' pinwheel! ;)

Reply to this TR

9902
may-26-2012-plummer-denman-plummer
telemack
2012-05-27 10:43:12