Foreigner needs advise

Hello,
I am new in Seattle and I have brought my backcountry skies and skins with me. I am planning some trips for medium skiers, up to 8 hours long and with an maximum elevation gain of 3000 feet.

One trip that I have read about is for example the Coleman Glacier area in Mount Baker.

Does anyone have any suggestion for me, also in the Steven Pass area, Mt Baker, etc. Which do you think are the most recommendable ones for a novice in Seattle?

Thanks!

Coleman glacier is definatly more than 3K feet gain, and it requires knowledge of glacier travel. However, the tour is pretty gradual one above heliotrope ridge and the skiing is medium slope down the glacier, if you opt not to summit and ski the roman wall (then I guess the tour would be around 3K). I would recmmend going to Paradise at Mt. Rainier (weekends only >) and skiing around Edith Crk. Basin and Mazama ridge, or the Muir Snowfield if you feel like a little more vert. Good luck, there's alot out there.

Stevens Pass is the best spot to start there are a lot of people that tour out of this area that you might be able to join up with and well defined skin tracks to follow. The terrain is moderate and it's a great place to get your feet wet. By the way welcome to Seattle there are also some outdoor adventure groups you might want to check out like the Mountaineers. Good skiing to you.

Check out Amar's site for more info than you need


How about the Tatoosh? Trip report from last january It's great little trip along a road and up a ridge to some wonderful terrain. The conditions there probably are icy like everywhere else....


PS Where are you from?

For Stevens Pass I like Skyline Ridge and Mt. Lichtenberg.  There are lots of others, but those are two moderate tours I enjoy quite a bit.  Skyline offers skiing on all aspects (slopes face all directions of the compass) and has trees, bowls and a couple of little chutes.  The gain is only about 1500 vert from the parking lot.  You can get a bit more information by looking at this map .

Keep in mind this weekend conditions are probably going to suck. And it will stay suck until it snows again.