24-26 Jan 2014, Mt Formidable and S Loop tour

esvege and I enjoyed excellent travel and often-enjoyable ski conditions this last weekend, generally south of Cascade Pass. 

We approached Friday, parked at the Eldo lot and a pass and a col later, camped near Art's Knoll; a couple brief runs of corn in between.

On Saturday we climbed and skied a few different aspects on Mt Formidable (the NW face was--as we feared--too firm for a complete, or an enjoyable, or a completely enjoyable descent).  The main line: the N-facing Formidable glacier that drops ~2500' from E of the summit to the Middle Cascade Gl.  A spectacular ski run in a spectacular spot!  The snow was actually surprisingly good.  Only one crevasse crossing up high gave us pause; this should fill in soon. 

Main event


Side trip


We topped the fine tour with beers and whiskey.  Saturday night was still and beautiful, surreal stars accompanied by similarly surreal sounds of rime shedding over rocks and ice down the walls of Hurry-up and Art's Knoll, which formed an ampitheatre of sorts.

S-loop Sunday: quickly booted to the notch between Hurry-up and Art's Knoll, brief sun-softened ski to the base of Plan B couloir, climbed that rig in pleasant conditions, and relaxed for a bit on Hurry-up's summit.  Then skied the S Glacier's often-creamy windboard, another long run.

Spider from base of Hurry-up's Plan B


esvege climbs Plan B


Formidable from summit Hurry-up


esvege sniffs out good snow on the S Glacier (center speck)


I benefit from his snowknows


Traversed the basin a ways (Trapper lake below), finally got to put some skins on to climb to the head of the Yawning Glacier.  (Recollection compels mention: this tour is incredibly scenic, my eye and camera couldn't adequately capture the expanse of mountains replete with climb/ski lines.)  Found some powder (!) on the Yawning, then climbed out of cold-sink Pelton Basin (an avy had run from Mixup across the basin and up the other side a little bit) to Cascade Pass and home.

If you look through the