TR Replies

Sounds like a bit of a sufferfest, but wow that's some beautiful country to have to yourself.

Yes, the SW ridge to the false summit of Naches was surprisingly perfect corn O'clock and not mushy. It had good cover that will not last long.

The W and E facing venues had very good snow cover but looked mushy to our eyes and had signs of loose snow on the move with potential for hisser sloughs. 

It will be interesting to see what the pineapple express, and skier grooming do for that. But I would venture a guess that things will be pretty darn good after the rain, for a...

Thanks for the report! Doesn't look too slushy. Watched the vids.Nothing like a double feature on a rainy day !

I got some photos of you guys skiing the Coleman headwall on Friday with my zoom lens. I'll eventually post them up here.

Wow, that's one helluva twofer! Well played.  I appreciate your cautionary words on attempting the CH. Three of  us climbed the N Ridge several years ago with the idea of skiing down the Headwall. By the time we reached the summit plateau we were in a total whiteout. We diverted to the Roman Wall because there was a bootrack to follow and booted halfway down to the divide before we could see and ski. Every time I have looked at the Headwall since, I have thought that our bad luck wi...

Is there an Evergreen MTB Alliance sort of advocacy group currently for ski touring and better access points in WA? I’d be stoked to volunteer time and effort if there’s work ongoing towards this. Or does such an organization need to be created?

The biggest potential user group would be for snow play, actually. People in the area have very few options beyond driving to Hwy 2 or even 90. That has the potential to serve a lot of people that don't have an easy way to get to the snow. The usfs is interested in more access like that, with the side benefit that ski tourists, snowshoers, and Nordic skiers could have a new place to go. 

You're right that there are a lot of obstacles, but we are going to try. 

There are a group of us organizing to get the road opened as a sno-park in winter. Stay tuned for when you can lend a letter of support to the usfs. It is a great location and would be nice to be able to drive up to the old lot in all seasons

I appreciate your report!

This is TR might have set the record for most words about Silver Peak, good job! And not a single mention of the condition of FS-9070, to boot...

An easier ascent route is to follow the road network to its bitter end then latch on to the obvious skin track up the western bowl. Getting to the actual summit does require more work but it's not that terrible, esp. when there's still snow on the Annette Lake side. Many folks ski down towards (sometimes all the way to) Annette then hike bac...

Thanks for the great post.  Even with the swamp, it has inspired me to get up there at the next weather window before it is too late.  Silver has a lot to offer and is so close to town.  And apparently, all you really need to ski it is a good pair of socks!

In previous years we have always skied directly up the left side of clear cut from Windy Pass instead of following the road. This year we found that the previously small Christmas trees have grown up and are now very difficult to navigate mid-way up the clearcut. We will be sticking to the road in the future.

Here are a few images from our venture. 

May2024 Silver Ski | Flickr

Whoa, thank you so much for this report! This is an inspiration for me! We happened to be in the same general area the next day after the big cold storm. We went towards Lamarck col from below North Lake and it was a cold windy winter day. Glad that you didn’t ski through hot pow! 

@voldemort it certainly does!

Some fine country and fantastic looking snow. Thanks for sharing 

Hi  Carbonj, thanks for infos !

Hi Ava, skiing down all the way to Cheakamus Lake would probably only make sense mid-winter on a massive season. But I did spot some incredible and likely very rarely skied lines off the back of Whirlwind, Angelo and Cheakamus Mountain. There’s definitely some huge descents and lots of adventure to be had in the zone!

Nice job and great write up. There is obviously lots more to do besides the big traverse underneath all that overhead danger. I should go out next year a few times and see where I can get on some out and backs. Do you think the ski down towards Cheakamus Lake would be worthwhile very often? I’m a sucker for long descents!

Thanks for posting

Hey mgoowdin, we got the button fixed. Thanks for letting us know about that!

Kyle,

Thanks for posting. Went to hit the comment button and...... nothing. I am supportive of equitably expanding access but this seems like expanding access to a select few on public lands. How is it these companies / groups come to be in line to place huts versus other groups?

Quality write up and pics! Thanks for taking the time to share your adventure with us. Awesome objective and decision making. 

Legendary. I was staring at that couloir the whole day climbing NE buttress last summer. Cool send.

Yeah it seems like at least if you can get enough glide to cross the cirque, going up the right side would work out barring any crevasse issues.

Thanks for a report from a cool zone

When I went over Ruth to Icy (later season a few years back) that glacier looked so gnar!

Thank you for an update on the conditions. 😃

Understood, Kamtron - we felt as though there was pretty minimal overhead exposure skinning up the (climber's) right hand side of the Nooksack - you're out from below the icefall further left, and there's not much in the way of cornices or similar features. To me, that seems less intimidating then trying to find a way down the Nooksack headwall without being able to see it - one