June 28, 2003, Chinook Pass

My wife Rachel and I drove up to Chinook Pass on Saturday with two very excited dogs.  We met my friend Brian Larson at CM Blvd on the way up.  We were surprised to see relatively little snow on the Tipsoo lake side.  There is virtually nothing left around Yakima Peak.  But luckily passing under the Mt. Ranier park walkway/bridge, the snow appeared on the Yakima side of the pass on North facing slopes.  

We parked right on the side of the road and started suiting up only to find that the two boots under the back seat were both mine!!!  Rachel's boots were still at home!  Bummer.  

Being a real trooper we slipped a couple footbed liners in the T-3s and they fit well for boots 4 sizes too large.  Rachel climbed over to the snow and we let the dogs loose simultaneous to a Park Ranger walking over the top to tell us they had to be on a leash.  

We let the dogs tow us to the wilderness boundary (about 50 feet away and around the ridge) and then let them go.  They had a blast running around in the snow.  

We climbed the Northeast side of Naches Peak and then skied down and toward Dewey to the Southeast.  Then we dropped down to a small lake that was filled with melting snow and traversed back over to the van.  It took us about 4 hours altoghether.  

When we were about back at the van, we realized we were missing our dog leash (a yellow daisy chain with a nice wiregate biner).  I thought I left it on top of Naches.  

Rachel waited with Kiska the dog and I skied off with Luna and a lighter pack.  We got to the top much faster skiing lighter and it was gone -- so we retraced our steps all the way to the point above Dewey Lake.  This next round took us 2 hours.  But we did not find the leash.  Oh well, it was fun to go really fast.  

The snow was nice slushy corn and never got too soft even at 70 degrees.  Even in the afternoon it was good for kicking steps on the steeps.  It should last another week or two on that side.  

Pete Steilberg