January 8, 2006, Pinnacle Tour, Tatoosh MRNP

Thanks to the telemetry data, we changed our destination to Paradise at the last minute, since Crystal was dry over night.  Of course the Longmire gate was closed; we foolishly decided to have breakfast while waiting.  As we were wating for our order to arrive, they opened the gate!!  Oh well, at least somebody else would be breaking a trail for us.

One group was ahead of us heading to Tatoosh breaking a trail in about 10" new snow, which was well-bonded to wet snow under.  From the Castle shoulder, we took one 1500' run down south side fairly skiable snow in flat light.  Instead of going back to the shoulder for more yo-yoing, we decided to tour to Pinnacle-Plummer saddle by a long rising traverse on south slopes of Castle-Pinnacle peaks.  We crossed a lot of inviting open slopes with new powder, saving them for the next time.  There were some avy debris from the previouse wet weather.  From the saddle, we skied the wide chute down to the valley floor.  There was a small wind slab at the steep start, but in general the new snow was not wind affected much providing a nice, powdery ~1800' run.

The skiing down from the road was fun as usual with only a few rocks visible to be avoid.  Great tour with good snow without using headlamps!  Thanks Paul and Rich for breaking tail; my excuse was blood donation last week...