May 21-25, 2018, Washington Pass to Silver Star

Over the course of the past business week, Scott Rinckenberger and I skied from Washington to Pass to Silver Star Creek, taking in some classic rock climbs along the way. The snow was generally very soft, and often shallow; corn snow was fairly scarce. But we felt we more or less hit the sweet spot for this kind of outing in the Washington Pass area, with dry rock and (barely) reasonable ski touring conditions.

After a Sunday recon of the Big Kangaroo area (and a seriously excellent crystal trove discovery at a secret high pass), we set out Monday from the hairpin. We walked up the road, skied up to South Early Winters Spire and climbed the Southwest Rib via the fun finger crack variant. We descended the South Arete and skied Spire Gully. Grabbing overnight stuff at the car, we schlepped up into the meadows at the head of the valley and camped atop a large boulder.

Tuesday we climbed through a col to gain the basin under the southeast face of Big Kangaroo at the head of the west fork of Cedar Creek. We dropped camp gear and skinned up to the base of the Beckey-Tate, a monstrous crescent gash in the beautiful rock of the southeast face. The climb was loose, thuggish, and very entertaining. We rapped the route and slept in a garden of boulders and larches, whose new chartreuse needles are just beginning to emerge.

The next day we toured north, making the best of a rapidly disappearing snowpack. One north facing slope offered maybe 70cm of isothermal snow, which slid to the ground beneath our tracks–we were essentially skiing the bed surface, which was talus. But it was all in good fun, and we made it to our camp near the col just southeast of point 8330 on Snagtooth Ridge. A thunderstorm tore through the area that afternoon, and at one point we fled our mid when the poles began electrically ticking with increasing fervor; we found an overhang and waited out the rain and hail, laughing at the thought of all our creature comforts back in the shelter.

The next day we headed for the south couloir of Silver Star, climbing up to the col at the top of the Silver Star glacier. We skied the glacier, headed over to the base of the Wine Spires to stash our overnight gear. Then we skinned up and climbed Rebel Yell on Chianti, a super classic that neither of us had done. After the rambling ease of SEWS and the loose, dirty alpinism on Big Kangaroo, it was a pleasure to climb superb rock. After getting our fill of wide cracks, we rapped the route and skied down to make camp on a magnificent perch that gave us a few hours of sunny basking.

Friday we canned our plans for more climbing and skied out Silver Star Creek. We barely eked out a descent to the valley floor, then put the skis on the packs maybe another half hour down the route of the climber's trail. It was hot by the time we reached the sunny final switchbacks.

One can still eke out a pretty good ski tour up in the Washington Pass area, but the snow is going fast. Don't delay!

Cheers,

Forest