February 8, 2009, Chair Peak

Sunday morning Mike and I skinned to Chair Peak summit bowl with some interesting route finding due to low visibility. Occasional glimpses of cliff bands and peaks alternated between confusing us and assisting us. Either way we found a beautiful morning above the clouds in the upper bowl below Chair Peak. We climbed the NE buttress which wound up taking the rest of the day, so didn€™t get much skiing in on the excellent snow still holding in the upper bowl. On the ridge wind was howling but it soon quieted down and became a perfect day with all the sun and views you could want. From the buttress ridge I saw three skiers below, descending towards Snow Lake. And from the €œwhooping€ I thought I heard I imagined they were having a good time  :)
We rappelled off with dusk approaching and started skiing out via headlamp. This proved unwise so we wound up booting much of the way down to Source Lake where we put 'em back on and did the best we could to ski out. A full moon broke out on the cat track glide making for a dreamy ending to one very full day.