Home > Trip Reports > March 15, 2019, Squilchuck Couloir!

March 15, 2019, Squilchuck Couloir!

3/15/19
WA Cascades East Slopes Central
2458
4
Posted by mikerolfs on 3/15/19 1:31pm
This is bucket year. I've been looking at the cliffs above Squilchuck State Park since 2002 when I moved into the valley. "I should ski that" has run through my head thousands of times. I can see it from my kitchen window. Our friend Aidan sent me a text on Wednesday saying he saw our tracks heading to the "across the street run" because he had been skiing Squilchuck Couloir (his name - a good one). Oh yeah? Tell me more! Two days later, Jamie and I were able to coordinate a few hours off, and doggon if it wasn't as good as I've envisioned for 17 years. Jamie says this thing is skiable about every third generation. I don't know if it's that bad, but it needs a lot of snow, and it doesn't get it often. We hit it perfect. It isn't really a couloir, but a complex maze of skiable lines between sandstone fingers. We skied west of Aidan's line and didn't have to cross his tracks until the bottom. It was 1600 feet of awesome, less than a mile from my house. I think it's time for me to declare the spring of 2019 as the best winter of my life.

If you sight from cuff or Jamie's jacket above his left hand, through the super-oval of the Squilchuck parking lot, then next open snowy field is my house!


Jamie in the thick of it.


Wow!  Congratulations on nailing a bucket list item, glad to hear it was so rewarding!

The story makes the photos so fantastic.😊

Driving down from M.R. saw numerous tracks in the hilltops between Mission and Squilchuck and a set (2) above and east of the park. It's clear that conditions are alllowing some lines to be skiied that rarely see anything remotely close to ski's. Good on ya, way to tap some great local lines!

A few more shots, we were in the shadows, seems like that's where all the fun is! While Mike caught me smiling it was more like a suppressed whine. It was at my limit for exposure! Mike made it look easy.








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2019-03-15 20:31:48