Chair NE Buttress w/ 2 rappels

In an attempt for one last hoorah before we face a potentially tricky snowpack for a while, I set out to climb and potentially make some turns down Chair's NE Buttress.  At the tail end of the weeks-long high pressure window, Thursday was a cooler day with partially cloudy skies so we expected good ice conditions for the ascent as well as firm but consistent conditions for the descent.  Climber's right side of the face was getting thin with a few inches of snow covering a few more inches of ice/snice.  While movement on this was straightforward (especially with the well established booters), protection was marginal at best.  Once at the upper ice pitch, we found good but variable ice conditions.  The upper face was easy steep snow.  

Once at the top of the face, I skied to the top of the upper ice pitch and established an anchor on a rock horn on the spur separating the route from the East Face while my partner (not skiing) rappelled to from a tree near the top of the route.  We both rappelled approx. 30m over the ice pitch.  I again skied to the top of the first pitch while my partner rappelled using two 60m ropes.  His rappel ended a bit short of the next rappel anchor (tat on the trees above the climber's left pitch 1 option) so he did a short downclimb of 50' or so.  We both rappelled using two 60m ropes down the climber's left entry pitch.  A single 60m or 30m w/ an Escaper would likely be sufficient to get through the two rappels (though would require 2 raps down the standard P1 corner utilizing the lung rock horn at the start of the corner)  

I can certainly imagine this one day going as a pure ski descent, without any rappels... in the meantime I think it's a fun and quick, albeit serious, ski mountaineering challenge.