June 18, Chinook Pass -- Peak 6567
6/15/06
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
1805
0
Skied Chinook Pass on Sunday, with Jeff and his dog Chuck. The plan had originally been to ski Adams, but various factors ended up making it better to just do a shorter trip, nearby.
Got to the pass shortly after 9 am. Snow was nice and firm, with just a thin layer of softness on top, just enough to make for nice easy skinning. First we climbed up to the little knob on the south ridge of Naches Peak. We had to boot up the last short section, which, closer to the top, amounted of a narrow rib of snow 30 feet wide, with big cornices on the right side and bare ground of ridge-top on the left.
Then we skied down the narrow ridge and down into the gullies to the east of that, then skinned and booted, mostly booted, up to the top of Peak 6567. Stayed on the ridge crest most of the way up, which, again, had a lot of cornices . . on the left side, this time. They weren't overhanging like the other ones were, though... they'd really sort of just melted out into sorta like snow steps, mostly pointing down the ridgeline and averaging about 50 ft wide, 30 feet deep, and 10 feet high .. Kinda cool, and with some would make decent tent sites, too. Didn't take any pics, but Jeff did, so maybe he'll post some...
Eventually got to the top, got some nice views of the frozen lakes below and various rocky peaks... and than skied down from there. That was a really fun run, our longest continuous one of the day, at about 1000' worth. Yeah, all told, the day ended up having a lot more horizontal, and less vertical, than I'd hoped. Oh well, I did get some good fun practice with tricky terrain, ... quick tight turns to avoid tree wells, cornices, etc. Also got to use my new whippet as an uphill self-belay device, too, for this first time, which was cool. Snow was just firm enough to make the pick dig in real nice.
Driving back, just about 10 miles west of the pass we passed a lone cyclist guy who was riding his bike up 410 to the pass, loaded down with lots of panniers, and... skis! Very cool. I'd heard of people riding their mtn bike up a closed logging road to get to ski slopes, but never heard of a road-tour-plus-ski-trip.
Got to the pass shortly after 9 am. Snow was nice and firm, with just a thin layer of softness on top, just enough to make for nice easy skinning. First we climbed up to the little knob on the south ridge of Naches Peak. We had to boot up the last short section, which, closer to the top, amounted of a narrow rib of snow 30 feet wide, with big cornices on the right side and bare ground of ridge-top on the left.
Then we skied down the narrow ridge and down into the gullies to the east of that, then skinned and booted, mostly booted, up to the top of Peak 6567. Stayed on the ridge crest most of the way up, which, again, had a lot of cornices . . on the left side, this time. They weren't overhanging like the other ones were, though... they'd really sort of just melted out into sorta like snow steps, mostly pointing down the ridgeline and averaging about 50 ft wide, 30 feet deep, and 10 feet high .. Kinda cool, and with some would make decent tent sites, too. Didn't take any pics, but Jeff did, so maybe he'll post some...
Eventually got to the top, got some nice views of the frozen lakes below and various rocky peaks... and than skied down from there. That was a really fun run, our longest continuous one of the day, at about 1000' worth. Yeah, all told, the day ended up having a lot more horizontal, and less vertical, than I'd hoped. Oh well, I did get some good fun practice with tricky terrain, ... quick tight turns to avoid tree wells, cornices, etc. Also got to use my new whippet as an uphill self-belay device, too, for this first time, which was cool. Snow was just firm enough to make the pick dig in real nice.
Driving back, just about 10 miles west of the pass we passed a lone cyclist guy who was riding his bike up 410 to the pass, loaded down with lots of panniers, and... skis! Very cool. I'd heard of people riding their mtn bike up a closed logging road to get to ski slopes, but never heard of a road-tour-plus-ski-trip.
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