May 29, Cascadian Couloir #1, Mt. Stuart

We drove over Sunday evening, happily finding clear skies in the Teanaway valley. I€™d heard that the road was drivable to the trail head, but was disappointed to find a shaded snow patch that stopped my van a couple miles short, so we camped there. Some 4 wheelers came up for an evening drive so Jeff and John hitched a ride to stash our skis and boots near the end of the road. Another week of warm weather should melt this patch out enough that high clearance 2 wheel drive vehicles can get through.

The alarm beeped at 3:30, and we were hiking by 4:30. The road went quickly. Snow started in earnest a quarter mile up the trail. We booted it up to Longs Pass on the firm (dirty in the trees) surface. Below the pass a team that had managed to drive to the trail head caught us; there was also a group of expatriate French skiers who had camped getting ready to go. We were all headed for Cascadian, but it€™s a big mountain, so no one seemed upset to find so many others with the same climb/ski in mind. Jeff and I were first down from the pass on the icy morning snow. We skied next to an impressive cornice fall, then looked back up and watched the others dot the slope, making it look like a downhill area.

We traversed south, angling through the trees down valley. We were lucky to ski right to a good log crossing the creek, and then continued south, eventually running into the valley trail which we followed to Becky€™s variation #1. The first party that had passed us was already heading up the couloir proper, but we were worried about icy conditions since John didn€™t have crampons, so we opted for the easy route. We were disappointed to find no snow on the bottom thousand feet, but the heathery slopes were easy to climb. Once on the snow it was easiest to continue booting through a couple of steep bottle necks, with one 20 foot section melted out. Once on the broad upper slope we skinned for a couple thousand feet to the last steep rise before the false summit. We met the first party there as they returned from the summit. They confirmed our concern about crampons in the lower couloir, but thought the skiing would be good in the afternoon sun. Jeff and I thankfully used their excellent steps when we climbed over to the top (crampons handy for the final slope), while John rested on the false summit.

Everyone else had skied down by the time we returned, so we had the mountain to ourselves for the rest of the afternoon. When John broke his pole between two rocks (tape and Jeff€™s shovel handle made for a reasonable if heavy repair job) we decided to ski variation #1 which was excellent soft corn on a firm base. We continued down the last narrow gully on skiers left which got us down most of the lower slopes we€™d hiked in the morning. There were a couple of down climbs, one with some awkward 4th class moves beside a water fall, but it was well worth it.

We found a different log to cross the creek, and then continued the long slog back up to Longs Pass. John had stashed a beer there and shared it with us as we took in a last view of Stewart before skiing down to within a quarter mile of the trail head.
 
We€™d hoped we could hitch with some 4-wheelers out for a ride, but no such luck. I was first down the road since I didn€™t have running shoes to change into and found the easy hike back a pleasant cool down as the last light filtered through the trees.

One of the French couples was waiting at the cars. They had lost their key on the mountain and needed a ride. Luckily we all fit into my van so we took them to Kirkland. We were the last customers into the Cle Elum Subway before they closed. Those footlongs tasted great on the long drive home.

A great day, with a lot of vertical (which kicked our butts), but get it soon or you'll be doing as much hiking as skiing.