May 3, 2015, Mt. Adams SW Chutes

A wonderful day on my favorite descent in the Pacific NW with my favorite ski partner- my daughter's chocolate lab Sugaree. We left camp around 3:45 AM- moving slowly on 2 hours sleep. Snow was continuous from about a mile out of the parking lot. I chose to boot rather than skin as the snow was pretty firm. Crampons would have been more useful than skins in my opinion but not necessary. We reached the summit 8 hours later under beautifully clear skies and virtually no wind. The ski down from the summit to the flats before the chutes was the standard Adams crud- icy, frozen, etc. Still- I was having a blast. Dropped into the SW chutes just after mid day. The first few hundred feet had not softened at all but the surface was smooth so no big deal. I skied a bit, waited for Sugaree, then skied a bit more. Suddenly there was corn. Not just corn- CORN!!!! Perfect ripeness. Hero corn. Porn corn. Things were amazing the rest of the way down the chutes. No wet sloughs- just dreamy turns in perfect spring snow. We cruised down and to the skiers left until we began traversing on foot at about 6200' back to the main trail. The Around The Mountain trail is almost entirely snow covered, but still made for more rapid travel that taking what seemed like more heavily tracked paths above us. All in all another best ski day ever!!!! My thanks to the really nice folks who offered Sugaree water after we ran out- it jump started her and we slowly walked the last mile back to the car and  a very long ride home. Sorry- no pictures this trip.