May 21, 2005, Lake Ingalls

Departed Seattle at about 7:30 with my two hiking
bros, Ryan J. and Vaget.  Arrived at parking area for
trail 1930 at about 10:30.  None of the signs on
Teanaway Road said 1930, but I think we just folllowed signs to 1934 and eventually ended up where we wanted to
be.  Got on the trail at 10:55.  About 1/4 mile in we
encountered what we would discover on the way out to
be a large avalanche tongue coming down from the ridge
to the east.  And without looking too hard for the
trail, followed the boot path up it and away from the
trail for hours to come.  In the absense of
switchbacks, we ascended directly to the top of the
ridge about 1/2 mile south of Longs Pass where the
trail would have taken us.  Nevertheless, the view of
Mount Stuart was stunning as we came over the ridge
hoping to get a better idea of where to go next.  The
obvious answer was to head north along the ridge.
Some very sweet runs were already becoming visible
across the northeast slopes.  

A trail along the ridge line to Longs Pass made
dealing with our initial miscalculation less taxing.
Trekked through some freshly weathered serpentine
outcrops and couldn't resist grabbing about three
decent sized hand samples.  Finally made it over to
Longs Pass at about 12:30 or so, as evidenced by the
wide open trail and multiple hikers below us.  Started
scoping out possible runs and convinced my fellow
hikers who had not brought skis to wait about a half
hour while I carved out some turns in what appeared to
be a thin fresh layer of nice spring powder.  Dropped
in off of a cornice and immediately realized the
terrible truth.  The fresh was underlain by a (dare I
utter the words) breakable crust.  The Grendal's
mother of bc conditions as far as I'm concerned.  So
much for showing off to my friends.  Managed to
connect a few turns before heading up for a total run
of about 500 feet.  Fortunately I didn't suffer too
much heckling from the bros.  

Continued on to Ingalls Pass, and on the call of the
least experienced among us, decided to power on to
Lake Ingalls, which had been the primary goal all
along.  Lots of snow below Ingalls Peak.  The lake was
frozen solid so as not to be as picaresque as we'd
hoped, but at least it gave the promise of snow
remaining for at least a few more weeks.  It began
snowing as we started heading back to the car at about
4:00 PM.  Found the trail we had missed from Longs
Pass and was able to ski a few hundred feet through
some small silvers.  The snow on the west side was
much more forgiving.  The trail out was very well
maintained, although we never once regretted that
first ascent to the top of the ridge.  Got back to the
car at about 6:30.  Overall, lots of potential runs
should last well into the summer.  And with a couple
weeks of sun baking the conditions should take a turn for the corny.  Which of course is a good thing.