May 2-3, 2018, Argonaut and a side of Stuart
5/2/18
WA Cascades East Slopes Central
3369
5
Being corn hungry, responsibility revoking, middle aged adolescents that We are, Carl and I thought it would be a good idea to pack in to the Teanaway, set up camp and ski for a few days.
We drove in late afternoon on Tuesday and parked the car as far as Carl's Subie could plow up the North Fork Teanaway road, which ended up being 2 miles past the Beverly turn off.
Excited to get into the Ingalls Creek drainage, We headed straight up a S.W. trending ridge on Iron peak, where we found a hunters trail that followed the ridge to snowline and easy travel to the summit.
Being late in the day, We opted to camp on top of Iron and catch the last rays of setting sun rather than dropping down into the Dagabah of Darkness (Ingalls Creek).
We awoke early, tore down our camp and headed down the TurnPike for a icy ski into the valley.
Landing at the base of the Cascadian Coulior, We ditched our overnight gear and headed down valley to ski the south face gullies of Argonaut.
Skiing down the trail for about a mile We started a elevation gaining traverse to the south face. Bad idea. (5 or 6 years back, T-Bill and I had gone this way and the route was covered and travel was easy) This year? Not!! I think we found some of the worst eastside off trail travel one can find. Slide Alder, SLIDE Alder, and More SLIDE ALDER!!
Unfortunatly We were to hard headed and committed, to just drop back down to the valley floor, give up our hard earned elevation and just approach straight up the avy gully that We intended to ski.
Finally getting back to continuous snow, we made good time up to the fan and up into the highest coulie, which comes off of the summit block.
Our tardiness and the lack of the prior nights freeze had the snow turning to iso, waist deep poo. The last 200' up through a tight choke was deemed unsafe in those conditions (for Us), as we were allready concerned and battling with rock moats and wanting to ski while the surface was still supportable. So we opted out of the estimated hour of snow wallering to the ridge, threw our skis on and had a great ski to the valley floor.
We had hoped to ski the West Ridge Coulior on Stuart the following day, but with the warm overnight temps and what we had found on ArghaNot, We decieded that the corn window was to short and booting up the Coulie was probably to much objective hazard. The Cascadian was just looming above our camp. No ski tracks in it. A 4500'+ fall line ski to your home in the woods? Yup. To irresistible to pass up.
Here's a little viddy I hastily threw together: https://vimeo.com/268115066
We drove in late afternoon on Tuesday and parked the car as far as Carl's Subie could plow up the North Fork Teanaway road, which ended up being 2 miles past the Beverly turn off.
Excited to get into the Ingalls Creek drainage, We headed straight up a S.W. trending ridge on Iron peak, where we found a hunters trail that followed the ridge to snowline and easy travel to the summit.
Being late in the day, We opted to camp on top of Iron and catch the last rays of setting sun rather than dropping down into the Dagabah of Darkness (Ingalls Creek).
We awoke early, tore down our camp and headed down the TurnPike for a icy ski into the valley.
Landing at the base of the Cascadian Coulior, We ditched our overnight gear and headed down valley to ski the south face gullies of Argonaut.
Skiing down the trail for about a mile We started a elevation gaining traverse to the south face. Bad idea. (5 or 6 years back, T-Bill and I had gone this way and the route was covered and travel was easy) This year? Not!! I think we found some of the worst eastside off trail travel one can find. Slide Alder, SLIDE Alder, and More SLIDE ALDER!!
Unfortunatly We were to hard headed and committed, to just drop back down to the valley floor, give up our hard earned elevation and just approach straight up the avy gully that We intended to ski.
Finally getting back to continuous snow, we made good time up to the fan and up into the highest coulie, which comes off of the summit block.
Our tardiness and the lack of the prior nights freeze had the snow turning to iso, waist deep poo. The last 200' up through a tight choke was deemed unsafe in those conditions (for Us), as we were allready concerned and battling with rock moats and wanting to ski while the surface was still supportable. So we opted out of the estimated hour of snow wallering to the ridge, threw our skis on and had a great ski to the valley floor.
We had hoped to ski the West Ridge Coulior on Stuart the following day, but with the warm overnight temps and what we had found on ArghaNot, We decieded that the corn window was to short and booting up the Coulie was probably to much objective hazard. The Cascadian was just looming above our camp. No ski tracks in it. A 4500'+ fall line ski to your home in the woods? Yup. To irresistible to pass up.
Here's a little viddy I hastily threw together: https://vimeo.com/268115066
Definitely a bit of time warping........Whatever happened to my 150 watt Pioneer receiver and huge three way floor speakers? Nice turns!
Kickass! I've been looking at those Argonaut coolies for a long time. Would love to get them in winter conditions. And it's cool to see the W ridge notch couloir is finally getting its due. I've been wanting to ski that one too, but it's hard to get anybody interested in anything other than Ulrichs (which is understandable, once you've looked at it from Longs Pass). You guys have a great nose for the goods.
Really enjoyed reading this trip report. Thanks shred!
cool vid. I liked the parts you captured of how to squeeze every last bit of skiing to the end.
sh*t yeah! makes me realize I need some rock skis.
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