Home > Trip Reports > 2/24/08 Pinnacle Castle Saddle- Tatoosh

2/24/08 Pinnacle Castle Saddle- Tatoosh

2/24/08
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
4235
10
Posted by skierlyles on 2/26/08 12:30pm
Scottsman, JoeBell and I headed out with the intention of skiing the Nisqually chutes down to the bridge... until we got up there and realized the weather (at the time) was probably not going to yield us the sunshine and corn snow needed to ski the chutes and avoid sliding down the chutes on our bums. So we did what we thought would give us the best return on investment and went in search of some north facing slopes in the Tatoosh.

Upon arriving at the parking lot we found 1/2 an inch of new and slightly warmer temps than up at Paradise ( 1 inch of new there). Started to skin up from the Narada falls parking lot and after some sliding around in the trees on a hard crust we gained the summer road and started off for reflection lakes. We decided that the Pinnacle Castle saddle would be the best bet for good turns and we started up the skin track. About halfway up we started to see the sun poke out and hoped that we had made the right decision. After reaching our objective the sun really came out to stay and all those bomber surfaces started to soften up for us (apparently we could have skied the chutes, bummer). Bumped into some hardcore snowshoers wearing full mountaineering gaiters in an inch of new snow- smart those snowshoers are. We had a quick snack and scoped the south facing lines that lead over to Plummer Peak. We thought we would leave that for another day as we were unsure if it is accessible from the pinnacle castle saddle (see second pic). If anyone has some beta on that it would be much appreciated. We thought about descending the southern slopes on a westerly track and thought that at the 5900' point that it could be passable and the ridge could be gained up to Plummer.

The snow in the upper cirques never got really nasty and only seemed to be sun affected/ refrozen on the usual suspect aspects, the north facing stuff still held some goods. Skied some decent windblown powder (see third pic), variable hardpack, and patches of crust back down to where the trees begin to encroach and decided to go up the east face of the castle and ski the steep face (see first pic). Sun warmed it up enough to be skied quite easily and we skied from there to the shoulder of the Castle over to near point 6058. From there we scoped some north facing lines that will be left to another day as well.

Took a nice long run down to reflection lakes and surprisingly found the lower treed slopes quite skiable. After a few equipment malfunctions experienced by Scottsman and several crater holes as a result, we made our way back to a waiting JoeBell. Apparently the line he took back down to the lake slid a bit (luckily without Joe in it).

All in all a good day and good company (save all the whining about us not getting the goods up on the Nisqually). Please tell those two that the Nisqually chutes to bridge will be good for another few weeks(or so I hope).

Think snow,

Chris
Thanks for the company Joe and  Chris. Nice day despite change in our objective.There was admittedly  a lot of whining about the sun shining on the Nisqually Chutes and my malfunctioning Dynafits. I'll man up next time. :-[



Thanks for writing up the report and posting the photos Chris.  I enjoy reading others TRs but seldom post my own.  I suppose I had ought to contribute more and whine less.
I think that we all had fun and found a quality turn or three.  We need to get back out there and ski the original goal.  Even if the snow sucks, it will be worth it just to see Scotty "man up."  ;D

Agreed, a good day was had despite us having missed out on the goods on the other side of the valley. It will be had, and how about this sunday? Let's do it! And scotty- you were no nuisance, equipment failures do happen and sucks you had to fall a few times because of them.

C

author=skierlyles link=topic=9317.msg37571#msg37571 date=1204145237]
Agreed, a good day was had despite us having missed out on the goods on the other side of the valley.


The snow is always better on the other side of the Valley! Right ??? ;)
Looking at the forecast for the weekend, there may be a little avy danger out there if it comes to fruition.

author=skierlyles link=topic=9317.msg37571#msg37571 date=1204145237]
sucks you had to fall a few times because of them.
C


You promised you wouldn't tell. :'( :'( :'( :'( :'(
Are you a kiss and tell tourer or what. :(
What happens on the tour says on the tour, capish, or you may have a little accident. Getting my drift, remember I now have my Dynafit prison shiv with me at all times. ;)

Hmm, dynafit troubles.  Must of been on the Musta's.  Hope you got if fixed.  I remember the angst they caused me in Las Lenas.

Scotty, you sure do have a shank I don't want to mess with! That thing could knock the ice out of a dynafit or knock some sense into a young buck like me. Sorry, I figured you already told on your post about the dynafits anyways, sorry to "kiss" and tell.

Hopefully we do get a bit of new snow this weekend and that it bonds well to the old surface. maybe it will come down right side up. Sunday does look to be a promising day for the Nisqually tour and should still be holding up okay though.

C

author=skierlyles link=topic=9317.msg37595#msg37595 date=1204230020]
Scotty, .... sorry to "kiss" and tell.
C


Close call Chris.  I thought for sure that he would retaliate and tell everyone that you are a closet snowshoer.

You wouldn't want that to get out!   :-[

author=skierlyles link=topic=9317.msg37537#msg37537 date=1204086658]
...scoped the south facing lines that lead over to Plummer Peak. We thought we would leave that for another day as we were unsure if it is accessible from the pinnacle castle saddle (see second pic). If anyone has some beta on that it would be much appreciated. We thought about descending the southern slopes on a westerly track and thought that at the 5900' point that it could be passable and the ridge could be gained up to Plummer.


I'm not sure about from Foss(?)/Castle saddle, but it is accessible from the Pinnacle/Castle saddle (above the Pinnacle Glacier remnant and the slush-cup - not the usual Castle saddle destination). PeterC and I had a nice tour last year up to the col between Pinnacle and the Castle, then down the backside, up to the Pinnacle/Plummer saddle and then up to the Plummer summit. I hope this helps!

Cheers,

Jason

author=JasonGerend link=topic=9317.msg37631#msg37631 date=1204313167]
I'm not sure about from Foss(?)/Castle saddle, but it is accessible from the Pinnacle/Castle saddle (above the Pinnacle Glacier remnant and the slush-cup - not the usual Castle saddle destination). PeterC and I had a nice tour last year up to the col between Pinnacle and the Castle, then down the backside, up to the Pinnacle/Plummer saddle and then up to the Plummer summit. I hope this helps!

Cheers,

Jason


Yup, this helps alot, we figured we could do it from where we were at and will have to go check it out above the slush cup area. I am pretty sure this is exactly where we were but I will confer with Scottsman on this. Thanks.

And to JoeBell- I am not ashamed to have bought snowshoes, I would rather ski, but when I want to spend time with the woman on the mtn there is no better way than to not tempt myself to ski- so I snowshoe :) Although I do try to be "ski-like" with my snowshoes on and find it quite difficult.

pray for more snow,

Chris

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2-24-08-pinnacle-castle-saddle-tatoosh
skierlyles
2008-02-26 20:30:58