May 20, 2007, Longs - Ingalls Fortune Peak

A last minute choice lead Jeff C., Marina, and I to head to the North Fork of the Teanaway River area in hopes of avoiding the forecasted rain and find some snow and it turned out to be the right call!  The road to the trailhead is completely snow free and there were only a few patches of snow around the parking lot.  However, hiking up the trail, the snow came quick and we could see that at least Fortune Peak had good coverage.  We decided to head up to Longs Pass and check out the condition on the back side and they turned out to be really good.  Great views with a burst of blue sky every once in a while was perfect and the snow on the backside was a blast.

From there we skinned back up to another saddle on the ridge  just north of Longs Pass and decided to keep on heading north.  We traversed our way around an unnamed peak on mixed snow and rock and then skied down to Ingalls Pass.  Decided to head towards Fortune as the final destination and dropped down towards the larchy meadow on the way to Ingalls.  A few flakes fell here, but nothing substantial.  We then headed up Headlight Creek to the ridge and kept on going until we topped out at the summit of Fortune Peak.  The clouds moved in here and obscured our view of the surrounding peaks and valleys, but occasionally gave us glimpse of what was there.  The top of Fortune was fun and slushy, but the bowl was wide open and a blast.  Lower down the runnels and slushy snow appeared, but was still a hoot.  As always survival skiing through the trees made the dash out loads of fun.  Finally had to pack the skis up about a mile from the trailhead. 

And still no rain, although by the time we got to Cle Elum, the deluge was in full swing.  Great day.

Photo 1: Looking North from Longs Pass (Fortune in the upper left)
Photo 2: Jeff skinning in the Ingalls Basin
Photo 3: Marina and Jeff getting the goods on Fortune