June 9, 2006, Chinook Pass/Naches
6/9/06
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
2497
1
Ahhh - how I love the Cascades. Having grown up in the southeast I am still (after 5 years) stunned by how beautiful this place is and how much fun it is to live here.
Played hooky with Straka and Jim and hit Chinook Pass yesterday. We drove under the gate/footbridge, parked and started skinning across the large (north) slope next to the cars. We took a steep eastward contouring uptrack until we were at the base of a fairly steep north facing slope that looked too good to ski past (the slope is very easy to see on the map). We skinned about halfway up and then booted up the rest.
After a little poking around the rocks at the top of the slope we decided to ski down and continue our circmnavigation of the peak (see image). A few inches of corn over a firm base made for very fun, steep turns. Coverage was awesome.
We continued our clockwise circumnavigation of the peak slowly ascending across the southern flanks of Naches until we got to a corniced ridge that looked over a huge West-facing bowl that empties towards the Tipsoo Lake area. Coverage in the south facing slopes is still pretty good though some dirt patches are poking out on SW aspects - still plenty of snow for skiing left but going fast.
We kept ascending along the ridge until we came to the entrance of a gully that Jim had seen in another trip report. This funky-fall line gully connected the ridge with the top of the bowl. We skied the gully with a marmot squeaking furiously at us while we slid by and entered the bowl.
Coverage in the bowl was excellent with a few small scree patches showing. I think these were my favorite turns of the tour as the snow had warmed a little longer and was really conduscive to high speed arcs.
We skied to the road, walked back to the car, had some lunch, ditched most of the stuff in our packs and headed out for one more run: the large (sw-facing?)slope directly behind the toilets - guess you could call it the NE shoulder of Yakima Peak. After a 15 minute bootpack we topped out on the ridge and then skied back down with an audience of tourists from FL, etc. Soooooo much fun - similar conditions to those we found on Naches.
A great day - gonna have to hit that again before the snow melts.
Michael
ps. as an aside I skied my Dynafit FR10s. I hadnt been so happy with the FR10s - they are too stiff for powder though great in crud. Ive gotta say...they shine for spring skiing. Powerfull carves through almost any spring conditions and great on the uphill.
Played hooky with Straka and Jim and hit Chinook Pass yesterday. We drove under the gate/footbridge, parked and started skinning across the large (north) slope next to the cars. We took a steep eastward contouring uptrack until we were at the base of a fairly steep north facing slope that looked too good to ski past (the slope is very easy to see on the map). We skinned about halfway up and then booted up the rest.
After a little poking around the rocks at the top of the slope we decided to ski down and continue our circmnavigation of the peak (see image). A few inches of corn over a firm base made for very fun, steep turns. Coverage was awesome.
We continued our clockwise circumnavigation of the peak slowly ascending across the southern flanks of Naches until we got to a corniced ridge that looked over a huge West-facing bowl that empties towards the Tipsoo Lake area. Coverage in the south facing slopes is still pretty good though some dirt patches are poking out on SW aspects - still plenty of snow for skiing left but going fast.
We kept ascending along the ridge until we came to the entrance of a gully that Jim had seen in another trip report. This funky-fall line gully connected the ridge with the top of the bowl. We skied the gully with a marmot squeaking furiously at us while we slid by and entered the bowl.
Coverage in the bowl was excellent with a few small scree patches showing. I think these were my favorite turns of the tour as the snow had warmed a little longer and was really conduscive to high speed arcs.
We skied to the road, walked back to the car, had some lunch, ditched most of the stuff in our packs and headed out for one more run: the large (sw-facing?)slope directly behind the toilets - guess you could call it the NE shoulder of Yakima Peak. After a 15 minute bootpack we topped out on the ridge and then skied back down with an audience of tourists from FL, etc. Soooooo much fun - similar conditions to those we found on Naches.
A great day - gonna have to hit that again before the snow melts.
Michael
ps. as an aside I skied my Dynafit FR10s. I hadnt been so happy with the FR10s - they are too stiff for powder though great in crud. Ive gotta say...they shine for spring skiing. Powerfull carves through almost any spring conditions and great on the uphill.
