Cascade volcano list completion - Washington + Three Fingered Jack + South Sister + Bachelor + McLoughlin

For the past several years I've had the intention of finishing a vague project to ski all the Cascade volcanoes, but got sidetracked by the desire to go "deeper" by skiing more big lines on Rainier/Baker/Adams, vs. going "wider" by skiing new volcanoes. With some of my other ski projects winding down, plus a deep snowpack in Oregon, there were no more excuses for leaving this unfinished in 2025.

There are a few different lists you could use to track your Cascade volcanoes progress. I chose the Peakbagger/Mountaineers list (peakbagger.com/list.aspx?lid=5044) as it conveniently omits some of the lesser Oregon volcanoes that are hard to reach and not interesting to ski. That left me with 5 of the 20 volcanoes to ski in 2025, all located in central or southern Oregon and easily combined in a nice little road trip that also involved climbing at Smith Rock and paragliding at Woodrat - the Oregon triathlon!

Mt Washington: I decided to tackle this one first since it had the most uncertainty. It turned out to be one of the pleasant surprises of this trip. With a groomed surface the road miles went quickly, and with good snow coverage I was able to take a direct line through the forest from Big Lake to Washington's NW Face. From there I booted up to the base of the summit pyramid at 7600'. A pitch of near-vertical choss and ice prevented me from continuing to the summit. With optimal snow conditions it might be possible to ski from Washington's summit, or close to it. There was also a nice-looking line down the E face which I was unfortunately too late in the day to investigate. My run down the NW face was good enough.

Three Fingered Jack: Not recommended unless you're specifically looking to complete a volcano ticklist. There isn't enough good skiing anywhere on this mountain to justify the approach. I booted up the W face to 3 different spots along the main ridgeline, looking for the highest continually skiable point on the mountain. None produced more than a few hundred feet of fall line turns before the terrain flattened out.

South Sister is like a mini Rainier. You can skin all the way to the summit and ski off in any direction, although some options leave you further from civilization than you'd probably like. The crater rim is very reminiscent of Rainier as well. I skied the Lewis Glacier Headwall, then traversed over to rejoin the standard S face route for the rest of the way back to Devils Lake. From there it was a very unpleasant 6 miles of uphill road skinning during the hottest part of the day to return to my car.

Mt Bachelor: yes, Bachelor too.

Mt McLoughlin: In order to keep the stoke alive throughout this project I had to leave something good for the end. McLoughlin fits nicely in the closer slot as it has good skiing on multiple aspects. I skied the East face, then booted back up and did a victory lap on the North Face before traversing back around to ski out through the old growth forest. Those are definitely the two most interesting ski lines, although there is quality skiing to be had on every aspect of McLoughlin. Here's a short video of the final day. 

Since my love of volcano skiing began in Chile, the Chilean soundtrack felt like an appropriate way to bring it full circle. Here are some photos from the final 5 volcanoes.