June 8, Kaleetan with Chair Circumnavigation

On Friday I took a PGS group of four over Bryant Peak col, up Kaleetan Peak, over Melakwa pass and down to Snow Lake. I was surprised by the good conditions and good coverage.

We were able to skin from the base of Alpental (the upper lot is closed for the season).

Ski pen varied from 1 to 15 cm in wet snow and weak crusts (from the cooling associated with this deep trough, I believe). All slopes we encountered skied well enough--heavy crud would be a good descriptor. We did experience easy to cut wet loose slides in the exit gully from Chair Peak lake, and these involved the top 15 cm of the snowpack. The big moats and holes in this section certainly formed the crux of the outing. We were still able to safely travel on Snow Lake, where I probed 2 to 2.5 meters of snow.

Kaleetan still has enough snow to ski from within about 80 ft of the summit, which is an easy mixed scramble. We weren't able to use the standard gully approach from Melakwa lake basin, but instead used the set of ramps and slopes to looker's right, which deposited us high on the south shoulder of the peak.

Lastly, our 80% chance of showers forecast panned out wonderfully--only 10 minutes of rain, and an hour or two of snow the entire day.

There is still great ski touring to be had out there!