Magic Mountain

Original, un-edited trip report: https://engineeredforadventure.com/crr-shenanigans/

Background

Stephen and I tossed around a lot of ideas. We had grand visions and talked about taking some big swings. Ultimately, loaded with 5 days of food and plenty of gear, we pivoted the morning of our trip to Cascade River Road due to a suboptimal weather window.

Our rough plan was to head up high on the Quien Sabe Glacier, check out the West Face of Sahale / North Face of Buckner, and maybe end with a Forbidden Tour. Still a pretty big swing.

One pit stop at an O'Reilly Auto Parts in Arlington to buy some rope to set a handline at Sharkfin Col and we were off...

Trip Report

This year the NPS has opened the gate at MP 20 and you can drive past the Eldo parking lot all the way to MP 21. Hell ya.

We waffled over whether to try the Boston Basin Trail or go up the arm. We agreed to give the Boston Basin trail a quick try; maybe 200 yards in we turned around. Too much brush, too much 'washing machine'. We thought it'd be easy enough to skin up Soldier Boy Creek instead of the long reach-around up the arm. And we were right, relatively easy skinning got us up into the alpine quickly.

We were ecstatic to find 5-6" of alpine pow in the Quien Sabe basin. No wind effect...hmmm. We were grinning ear-to-ear. We quickly ditched our overnight kit at a good spot and headed up towards Sharkfin Col to do some recon. Initially we didn't know what to look for and were intimidated by an ugly rock gully we ~thought~ was Sharkfin Col. Phew! It turned out not to be it and we got eyes on an easy snow ramp to the saddle. First crux, check.

We skinned over in evening light to the shoulder beneath the West Face of Sahale. We planned to re-use our skinner the next morning. Some soul turns in evening pow filled our cups and we were on Cloud 9, dreaming of the next few days and what they'd bring.

Right as we were heading into the tent for the night the winds began to pick up. Sometimes it's hard to tell how strong the winds are from inside a tent; we tried to convince ourselves that it was just the flapping nylon. A quick peek outside dashed that hypothesis. Northerly winds raged all night long.

When morning finally came we looked at each other and didn't want to make decisions. Let's go for a walk towards Sharkfin. We couldn't let go of our hopes yet. Getting breakfast ready was a mission itself.

With every ounce of down on we trudged towards Sharkin. Hogsback winds crashed down over the Forbidden-Sahale ridgeline. There was no chance of protected north-facing powder. Neither of us wanted to say it at first. We needed to bleed it out of our systems, slowly. After 20 minutes of skinning we were ready to pivot. Turning our heads 180 degrees we could see blue skies and sunny slopes on the other side of the valley. How was it so apocalyptic on the Quien Sabe but so pristine on the Yawning??

We packed up camp and made our way over to the arm to ski down to Cascade Pass. With plenty of food and a commitment to this zone, at this point, we would try to make some lemonade. We ditched our stuff at the pass in a nice sheltered spot and quickly transitioned to day packs. Surprisingly there was no wind at Cascade Pass and sheltered powder. Huh...crazy. We'd go check out skiing on Magic Mountain and see what we could find.

Even the traverse over towards Pelton Lake held better snow than anything we had found up on the Quien Sabe. It was absolutely wild to me that less than a mile away it could be so different. We agreed to go up the Yawning, check out the Banana Couloir and maybe ski some other stuff. If we found good snow, we'd go for Trapper's North Couloir the next day.

Without another soul in sight we began skinning up the Yawning. Alpine, wind-kissed pow just beneath boot-top was a delight. We made our way over to the base of the Banana and began booting up.

It's funny, I bought Auftriib plates after a wallow-fest up the Banana Couloir a few years ago. And each time I have been back I have not had the plates...HA. Booting wasn't too bad but they would have been nice. We found well-bonded snow in the Banana and punched it up to the top. It was in good shape, maybe the best I've had it in. We ate a quick snack atop, gazed over at Formidable and Kool-Aid Lakes, and readied for the ski down.

The first few turns off the top were steep but the snow was perfect for steep skiing. Predictable, spring pow that catches you softly. I snapped a few pics of Stephen and then we leap-frogged down the couloir. Sluff management was required but overall the couloir skied great. It was great to get our momentum back and ski something after a real ass-kicking in the morning.

With our mojo rejuvinated and an afternoon left of daylight, we wanted more skiing. I threw out the West Face of Pelton or the NE Face of Magic. The NE Face Couloir actually looked in really good shape and was in the shade and plenty cold. If there's a day to ski it, it's today. The line can be such a dumpster chute when it gets sun.

We headed up the couloir with some moody light and blowing wind. It's funny how the ambiance can feel so much more real when there's wind and filtered light. We were finding good snow and the stoke was high. 

The first few turns off the top were lovely, better than the last time I skied it. Unfortunately coverage wasn't quite as good through the pinch and there were a few rocks that weren't covered. I briefly took my skis off and down-booted a 5ft section that would have felt dumb to try and dry-ski. Beneath that, I clicked back in and scooted over to Stephen. The light was pretty flat; turns out steep jump turns are harder than normal when your depth perception is off! We still enjoyed great skiing down the couloir.

We ate a snack at Alliteration Col, gazing over at Trapper. I really wanted to give the north couloir another try and Stephen was keen too. It looks beautiful. It's a really special line, one that I peeked at earlier this year and want to get in good conditions. We agreed to head out there tomorrow and give it a poke.

We party skied down the Yawning, passing a group of 3 that were the only other ones out. Boot-top turns down the Yawning were an awesome closer for the day. We spotted wolverine tracks on our flat skin back over to Cascade Pass.

There was one more surprise left in store for us on the trip. We woke to the classic Cascade Pass cloud (it really should have a name) which scared us for a moment. We readied our gear and by the time we were good to go it cleared, bringing back some hope. We still found protected, soft snow on the traverse over to Pelton but it was clear that winds overnight had been a little stronger on this side of the valley than the night before. Our skin track was slightly filled in spots, totally filled in others. More wind effect than the day before, for sure.

We still felt good about trying for Trapper. We ski traversed over to the base, passing a HUGE D3.5 slide that had come off Hurry-Up. It ran all the way down to the lake with massive debris flows. There were plenty of chunks in the apron beneath Trapper that made skinning difficult so we just opted to boot up. 2-3" of soft snow still remained and we had hopes we'd find more good snow once we were off the debris fan.

Once in the couloir proper we found 5-6" of alpine pow, similar to the Banana. The crust-layer was a little more apparent than the Banana or the NE Face Couloir, though, and we noted the interface felt a little more planar. For the first few hundred feet we weren't concerned, though. Stoke was high.

Around half-way up the couloir the snow texture changed, pretty dramatically. The gut of the couloir turned to hollow wind slab, with a slab of 3-4" of styrofoam snow sitting on lower-density alpine pow. Hrmm...not a great structure. The sides of the couloir felt better, we could get our boots down onto the crust. But we really couldn't mitigate the hazard of the slope, anymore.

A quick conversation, a few steps upwards, and then an agreement to flip. It just didn't make sense. We gazed back at the Trapper-Hurry-Up cirque as we ascended back to Alliteration Col. What a place. 

Back on the Yawning we didn't have such a great second lap. Light was flat, snow was punchier, the gray sky was telling us something. Time to go home. We took a quick skin up one of the neighboring drainages to the west of the Yawning and got some bonus turns in before heading out.

The turns out from Cascade Pass were actually pretty good schmoo, enjoyable schmoo. A quick walk down the road to the truck and we were back, rolling home with plenty of lemonade.