February 23, 2008, Kaleetan

There's already another trip report posted for Kaleetan from this weekend so I'll try to keep my write up brief :) Four of us headed out from Alpental over Bryant Peak col to Melakwa lake on Saturday. This was my first time up that valley, and it's really a beautiful, secluded spot for how close it is to the car. From there, half our party continued on with the Chair Peak circumnavigation. Gato and I headed up the couloir, tracing dave_perkin's footsteps. (Nice to meet you at the col, Dave.) We found Kaleetan's S face in surprisingly good condition -- not prime corn, but very skiable nonetheless. The views from the summit were great, especially towards Glacier Peak. The E facing approach couloir was icy, so we opted for a long ski down the S face to My Lake, and then traversed around the S shoulder of Kaleetan. This added 1K feet of vertical to our return (for 6K total on the day), but the S face offered the only excellent skiing day of the day. Great tour! Ice axe/whippet is handy in sections, crampons weren't needed for us.