Home > Trip Reports > January 23-24, 2014, Pickets, West McMillan Spire

January 23-24, 2014, Pickets, West McMillan Spire

1/23/14
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Posted by Forest McBrian on 1/26/14 1:57pm
I walked up Goodell Creek Thursday afternoon and camped around 4500' feet on the standard approach to Terror Basin. I reached snow around 3,000' and postholed through tight trees for about 800' before things opened up; from there it was easy going.

Jason, Sky and Phil skied West McMillan almost exactly 7 years ago; likely others have done it since then, too. It's a great ski line! It feels like McMillan cirque is right under the tips of your skis the whole time. I went to the true summit but due to thin snow I skied from right under the 3rd class step on the west end of the summit ridge.

The snow above 4,000 is awesome right now. This window would have been a good time to go big in the North Cascades--and who knows, maybe someone is doing that right now?

It's the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act, and I am feeling very grateful toward the far-seeing folks who brought it to pass. 
Way to go Forest !  Yeah, the relief exposure on W Mac is something to behold ;-)

Nice one, Forest.  It sure is spectacular on top of West Mac.

Excellent Forest!  Petite traversee atlantique pour taquiner le nord-ouest sauvage!

The madness of it all.....
ribbon in the sky'


(Scurlock from '03 Nov...')

:)!  A few other parties have skied West Mac -- couldn't dig up the cascadeclimbers TR (Tony Bentley et al.?) in a minute or two.

Great choice for this weather.

Forest has a way of picking the perfect adventures given the time, season, conditions etc…

Kind of like those people who are really good at picking the right sort of ice cream to go with a specific meal, or cheese with wine. 

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january-23-24-2014-pickets-west-mcmillan-spire
Forest McBrian
2014-01-26 21:57:26