January 18, 2003, Chair Peak Circumnavigation

I had a hard time rounding up a partner for this trip, but couldn't pass up the stable snow and excellent weather so decided to go it alone.  Strong easterly winds blew my poor Ford around driving past North Bend and had set up a strong and deep cloud layer at the pass.  Climbing to Pineapple Basin I began to wonder if I would break out of the clouds at all.  I picked up a skin track, unsure of exactly where it was headed, but followed it upwards hoping to reach clear skies to be able to navigate.  The sweat on my hair and arms froze solid in the fog, but a few hundred feet of elevation sent me through the inversion and into the very warm sun.  The track I had been following led up through the basin and to my surprise traversed around Bryant Peak towards the Bryant Peak Col (and indeed, continued all the way around Chair).  I paused for a moment to put on my helmet, protection from the rocks and ice falling off Bryant, and moved as fast as I could past the objective danger and to the col.

From here the route drops down to Melakwa Lakes, climbs to Melakwa Pass, drops past Chair Peak Lake to Snow Lake where it climbs to the Snow Lake divide before descending back to Alpental.  The Melakwa valley does not have a direct outlet to Snoqualmie Pass and was sunny.  The clouds were pouring over Hemlock Pass from Denny Creek, quite a sight really, a giant waterfall of condensed water.  Unfortunately, I was moving a little too fast this morning and the sun hadn't had a chance to warm the west facing slope for my descent to the lakes.  I re-skinned and made the short climb to the pass on now rapidly warming snow.  From Melakwa Pass, Mt. Roosevelt was a shinning beacon.  I seriously considered climbing it but passed - it's steep east facing gully would have been shaded before my descent making for a somewhat dicey ski down.  Surprisingly, the shaded north facing slope below the pass had a slight crust buried below a couple inches of powder, just enough to effect skiing enjoyment.  The western end of Snow Lake was in full sun while the east end was foggy and cold, the victim of Snoqualmie Pass' overflow.  The slopes above Source Lake were in the fog and never warmed, the skiing was rather unenjoyable breakable crust.