Birthday Tour Deluxe March 4, 2007, Washington Pass

Noll and I left the Blue Lake Trailhead around 8am on Friday.  The skin up to Blue Lake Col was pretty quick, as the snow was firm and fast.  We scrambled up Early Winter Spire for a nice morning summit and a view of the deservedly revered North Cascades.  The snow up the gulley was in perfect shape and it was easy to kick steps.  A short rock scramble in tele boots and crampons provided a nice finish.  We then skinned over to the top of the cornice, had a nice ski down Madison Avenue, then skinned up to Copper Creek Col.  From there we got our first glimpse of Kangaroo Temple and got fired up for the long boot back.  We nailed the routing to the base of Kangaroo Temple Couloir and began the long boot pack.  We were able to skin a nice section in the middle, but sooner or later it came down to boot packin€™.  We decided that the rock scramble to the summit was a little too spicy for our tele boots, so we elected to leave Kangaroo Temple un-summited.  It was super windy on top, and it was hard to stay warm.  The conditions in the couloir were not so hot, but we managed to get some good turns in.  The death cookies and avalanche debris from the middle of the couloir down to the bottom spoiled most attempts at carving nice lines.  From the switchback it was time for the long skin back up to Blue Lake Col.  Avalanche debris at the bottom of the gulley made boot packing appropriate, but the top half of the gulley was good for skinning despite frequent sluffing.  We made the top of the Col around 8pm.  At the Col, Noll decided that his earlier plan to huck off the cornice on the return route was to be shelved.  We were tired of going up.  The ski back down to Blue Lake Trailhead was good at first, and we got in a couple dozen sweet turns on creamy snow.  Towards the bottom the frozen tracks and chunks forced us to resort to alpine turns.  Combining the Birthday Tour with Early Winter Spire and Kangaroo Temple made for an epic day with some great turns in fantastic terrain.  All in all a great day.  Here are some photos.  Noll in Early Winter Spire gulley, Noll making turns down Madison Avenue, me making turns down from Copper Creek Col.